Russians go top

ByReuters

Published 22/03/2004 at 22:22 GMT

The favourites in action on the first day of the Dortmund festival, holders Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, suffered in the short programme. The Chinese couple had to be content with fourth place after Zhao fell on a triple toeloop and now face a struggle to ca

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Totmianina and Marinin, the European champions, impressed the judges with a fluent performance, earning great marks including a perfect 6.0 for presentation.

Shen and Zhao collected marks ranging from 5.1 to 5.6 for the requested elements, a bitter disappointment for a pair who had received four 6.0s while winning the title last year in Washington.

"I don't know why I missed that," said Zhao. "I didn't feel nervous at all and normally it's an element I have no problems with. We will keep fighting."

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