Radionova and Pitkeev shine at Cup of Russia

Radionova and Pitkeev shine at Cup of Russia

MOSCOW - Russian teenager Elena Radionova stormed into the lead of the women's competition while compatriot Adian Pitkeev led the men's event after the short programme of the Cup of Russia, the fifth stop of the Grand Prix series.

Russia's Elena Radionova performs during the ladies short skating program at the ISU Grand Prix Figure skating Rostelekom Cup in Moscow on November 20, 2015

Radionova, 16, Russia's national champion and last year's Grand Prix final runner-up, skated almost flawlessly to "Je t'aime" by Lara Fabian for a 71.79 mark to stand 4.4 points ahead of Canadian nationals runner-up Alaine Chartrand.

Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia, this season's Skate America winner, was third, just 0.35 behind Chartrand.

Meanwhile, Sochi Olympic champion Adelina Sotnikova marked her return to the competition after missing last season through an ankle injury by finishing fourth after first day.

The 19-year-old, who has not competed at any major events after winning the 2014 Olympics, received an ovation from the packed 8,500-seat Luzhniki Small Arena with a rousing presentation of her "Historia de un Amor" Latin Selection short programme for a 65.48-point mark.

"It's a fantastic feeling to come back and to feel the adrenalin in my blood after a year and a half without competition," Sotnikova said.

"Of course I was a bit nervous and failed to show my best skating today. But I came back and I'm happy."

The 17-year-old Pitkeev, who was seventh at the last year's European championships and sixth at Skate America, surprisingly took the lead in the men's event.

His solid presentation of "Pain" by Takeshi Hama and "Appassionata" put him on top, just 0.55 points ahead of reigning reigning world champion Javier Fernandez.

"I'm very pleased with my performance here," Pitkeev said.

"If my presentation wasn't perfect it was very close. I experienced certain problems before the start but managed to keep my nerve on the ice in front of my home crowd.

"Now I need to keep myself concentrated to perform my free programme at the same high level. I hope everything will be all right tomorrow."

Ross Miner of the United States sits third 1.63 points behind Fernandez.

In ice dance, the Canadian pair Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, this season's Skate Canada winners, grabbed the lead following the short dance.

The 2014 world champions Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy were second, 2.47 points behind the leaders. Russia's Viktoria Sinitsyna and Nikita Katsalapov, second at Skate America, finished the opening day in third four points further back.

In pairs, local favourites Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, the Sochi Olympics runners-up and fourth at Skate America, took the lead with an almost flawless presentation of "I Put a Spell on You" short programme for a 75.45 mark.

Another Russian pair, Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, the reigning European champions, were second, 71.70pts ahead of third-placed Cheng Peng and Hao Zhang of China 68.10.

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