World Pair Skating Champs Crowned

Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy rallied from a spectacular joint fall to score the top mark in the free skate and win the pairs event at the figure skating world championships on Wednesday.

The European champions, who trailed China's Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang after Tuesday's short programme, both took a tumble in their side-by-side triple Salchow early on in the free skate routine, but the pair regained their composure to triumph.

"Tonight, I don't know what to say, I'm so happy," Szolkowy told reporters. "It was a hard way to get here and make a performance like this. It wasn't perfect, but in the end it was enough."

The pair paid tribute to the enthusiastic crowd.

"A really big thanks to audience. We've had so much fun skating here. I think the last two points were because of you," Salkowy added.

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Chinese Lead Pairs

Goteborg, Sweden (Sports Network) - The Chinese duo of Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao have taken the lead after the short program of the pairs competition at the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships.

The two had a score of 74.36 points, which was ahead of the German pair of Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy (72.00) and the Russian duo of Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov (71.42).

Canadians were next in fourth with Bryce Davison and Jessica Dube (68.66) occupying the spot.

Zhang Hao and Zhang Dan were fifth in last year's worlds and second in 2006, but are on track to give China three straight gold medals at the event. The Chinese have traditionally dominated pairs, winning seven of a possible 12 medals over the last four competitions.

The top American team is Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, who are in 10th place with 53.83 points. The pair of Benjamin Okolski and Brooke Castile holds 12th place with 49.59 points.

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