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Chinese Pair on Edge to Win at WorldsChinese pair skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo displayed a flawless performance to take a comfortable lead in their event at the World Figure Skating Championships here on Monday.Standing at the leading place after short programme, the Chinese duo, world runners-up last year, are one step away to create a history to become the first pairs world champions from Asia since the event was officiated at the championships in 1908. With the disqualification of defending champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia after Berezhnaya was tested positive for a banned substance at the European Championships in Vienna last month, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo became the strongest favourites to win the event on the ice rink of Nice. The Chinese pair were nearly perfect in the routine performance, which requires eight elements including a throw triple loop and side-by-side triple toe loop to the music of "Firebird" by Igor Stravinsky. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who did not win any Grand Prix stops but won the grand finales, had seven 5.8 and two 5.9 for technical merit and seven 5.8 for artistic presentation. "We are feeling great at the performance," said Shen Xue, who began to skate together with Zhao Hongbo in 1992. "We are at the same form as we were at the grand finales in Lyon," she added. Another Russian pair, Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov, who finished second in this year's European championships to Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, were second in the short programme. Third were Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. The pairs free skating will be on Wednesday. In the men's event, Alexei Yagudin used a new routine to gain an advantage over his rival Yevgeny Plushchenko in the qualifying although they skated in different groups. Seeking his third consecutive world title, Yagudin was impressive in taking his group, nailing a quad and seven triple jumps.Plushchenko showed the effort of skating early and was beaten by Canadian Elvis Stojko in the other qualifying group. Since losing his European title last month to Plushchenko, Yagudin has changed his long program, that he showed for the first time in competition Monday in the round that counts for 20 per cent of the final score. According to the rules, top 15 from each group advance to the short programme, which will be held Today.
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