Teenager Andrei Mozalev was one of three Russians who looked dominant compared to the rest of the field, having scored 99.76 in the short programme, with the free skating category set for Friday (January 14), which will then determine the overall men's winner.

Very little separates the trio, as fellow 18-year-olds Mark Kondratiuk and Evgeni Semenenko scored 99.06 and 99.04 respectively.

Best of the rest in the field was Georgia's Morisi Kvitelashvili with 92.76, and Daniel Grassl of Italy finished fifth on 91.75.

Latvian Deniss Vasiljevs, Azerbaijan's Vladimir Litvintsev, Ivan Shmuratko of Ukraine, Italy's Gabriele Frangipani and Kévin Aymoz of France completed the top 10.

The pairs short programme started today too with the podium consisting of three Russian teams.

Top of the pile was Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov with a score of 82.36, narrowly beating Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov who were far in front of the rest of the field with 81.58.

Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii scored 76.26 to finish more than 13 points in front of the fourth-placed pair of Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini of Italy.

Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nolan Seegert were fifth.

Free skating for pairs is scheduled for tomorrow, crowning an overall champion following the conclusion of the second discipline.

The women's short programme is scheduled to start tomorrow too.