SHEFFIELD, England (AP) — Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov captured their first major title by heading a Russian sweep in the pairs competition at the European figure skating championships on Thursday.
Heading into the free skate in the lead after a season-best score in the short program on Wednesday, they produced a sublime performance to the “Black Swan” soundtrack to earn 137.65 points.
Volosozhar and Trankov finished with an overall score of 210.45 points, 16.66 ahead of Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov. Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov won the bronze medal with 171.81 points.
Volosozhar and Trankov, who were competing in their first European championships, won silver at last year’s worlds.
