MILAN, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Olympic pairs champions Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot came out as the convincing leaders in short program, while Russian golden girl Alina Zagitova was outshone by Italian veteran Carolina Kostner at the world figure skating championships here on Wednesday.
The German pair, who claimed a hard fought gold medal in PyeongChang last month, scored a personal best of 82.98 points for their short program to lead going into Friday's free skating final.
Russia's Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov came in second on 81.29 with France's Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres in third with a score of 75.32.
China's Peng Cheng/Jin Yang were the sixth with 71.98 and the other Chinese pair Yu Xiaoyu/Zhang Hao sat ninth on 71.31.
Savchenko, 34, who won five world titles with her former partner Robin Szolkowy, tied Norwegian legend Sonja Henie for the female record of 11 world championships medals here in Milan.
In the women's short program, the newly crowned Olympic gold medalist Zagitova, 15, trails the 31-year-old Kostner by a slim 0.76 points.
The Russian sensation, who's bidding to win her worlds debut after taking it all in every competition of her first senior season, skated to "Black Swan" and scored 79.51, well below the world record of her own, 82.92.
Japan's Satoko Miyahara, a former world silver medallist, is sitting third at 74.36 going into Friday's free skate.
Kostner set a new personal best with 80.27 in front of the home crowd after performing faultlesslyt to Celine Dion's "Ne me quitte pas."
"I thought back to 15 years ago when I started skating internationally. Nobody in Italy followed figure skating," said the Italian who was competing in her 14th world championships and has six world medals.
"I feel so happy that people are sharing this passion with me," added Kostner, the 2012 world champion.
The post-Olympic worlds are without many of the medalists from Pyeongchang, including the injured men's champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, two-time reigning world champion and Olympic silver medalist Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia, China's silver pair Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, as well as the ice dance champions Tessa Virtue/Scott Moir.
