MILAN, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin led the pairs figure skating after posting a season-best 80.01 points in the short program on Sunday at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
Skating to French composer Maxime Rodriguez's El Abrazo, the pair led in both technical elements and program components, opening up a comfortable 4.55-point cushion. Georgian pair Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava placed second, while Canada's Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud sat third.
China's returning Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong showed improvement from their team event outing. Despite Sui making an error on the opening triple toeloop, the pair regrouped quickly and completed the rest of their routine with stability, landing elements including a triple twist lift, throw triple flip and backward inside death spiral. They finished sixth with 72.66 points.
Speaking about their third and probably final Olympic campaign, Han said although they still wanted to compete for the gold, there were also other goals to achieve.
"We want to experience life and also fully experience this Olympics. We hope to inspire more young athletes and share the spirit of our sport with them. We want them to see that even if you only train for half a year, you can still stand on the Olympic stage - and if we can do it, you can do it too," said Han.
The top 16 pairs, out of 19, advanced to Monday's free skate.
