Russia's Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov have won the pairs gold of the European Figure Skating Championships 2010 in Tallinn.
The Russian pair received 139.23 points for their free program and 213.15 overall, surpassing their previous personal best by almost 20 points on Wednesday.
"We are so happy and satisfied with our performance. The audience gave us energy and we gave energy to the audience," Japan-born Kavaguti was quoted as saying by the ISU website.
The two-time reigning world champions, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany, had a narrow 0.20 lead after the short program. They slipped to the second place during the free skate with a couple of errors.
"Of course we are a little disappointed, but not too much. We came here to win and to skate clean. But we did some small mistakes. Except for the errors on the throw and the second triple jump, it was a good performance, a clean performance," Szolkowy said.
The bronze medal went to Russia's Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov, who also set a new personal best with 202.03 points.
Another Russian pair, 2007 World Junior silver medalists Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov, came in fifth during their debut at the European Championships (159.84 points).
Earlier in the day, Russian Olympic Champion Evgeni Plushenko, who had recently made his much-anticipated comeback, won the men's short program. He scored 91.30 points, beating the previous world record he set during the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin.
MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti)
