(March 24, 2010) – Competition began Tuesday in Italy at the centennial ISU World Figure Skating Championships. The event will run until March 28, 2010.

Things got underway at the Palavela arena with the compulsory dance. Olympic Champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir led the way with 44.13 points followed by American training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie White with 43.25 points. Italy’s Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali followed in third with 40.85 points.

Coming off the Olympic high Scott Moir shares what its like to be back on the ice, “we are excited to be at another world championships, it’s a huge competition. It was great for us to get back and be able to push ourselves just a little bit further. We have come a long way in two weeks and we are excited to show that.”

Canada’s Vanessa Crone and Pail Poirier are sitting in ninth place with 33.32 points after skating a seasons best in the compulsory dance.

“To have our season best at the world championships is something every skater wants and we are just very pleased that we got that here. To have it on a dance we have not competed before is even better,” said Crone.

The original dance will take place on Thursday and will conclude with the free dance on Friday.

The pair teams were up next with their short programs. Olympic silver medalists Qing Pang and Jian Tong of China are in first place after the short program with 75.28 points. Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia are in second spot with 73.12 points and Olympic bronze medalists Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany are in third with 69.52 points.

Canadian Champions Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison are sitting in eighth place with 59.36 points. Canadian teammates Anabelle Langlois and Cody Hay are in 12th with 54.40 points.

“It was obviously not the program we wanted to skate tonight because we know we can skate better,” said Bryce Davison.  “We love our long program.  It really reflects our style of skating.  We just have to put tonight behind us, and skate the long program the way we know we can.”

Langlois and Hay were also disappointed with their skate this evening.  “We had good practices here, and a good warm-up, so I don’t really know what happened in the throw, I thought I had it.  We just have to look ahead to the long program tomorrow.”

The pair event will finish on Wednesday with the free program. Wednesday is also the start of the men’s event; they will perform their short programs.

For more information on the event and full results please click here!

Skate Canada World Team and coaches minus Cynthia Phaneuf and Myriane Samson who have not arrived yet. The team in decked out in their new team jackets provided by Roots.

Photo by Gérard Châtaigneau