SOCHI, December 8 (R-Sport) - The Russian pair of Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov continued their unbeaten season Saturday with victory at the figure skating Grand Prix Finals in Sochi.
President Vladimir Putin looked on at the 2014 Olympic venue as Russians recorded a one-two home finish with Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov taking second place.
Volosozhar and Trankov flirted with failure in their romantic performance, with Trankov falling twice on his own before a badly misjudged lift left the two tangled together on the ice and spoiled their timings.
"We only skate in a stable way at the most important competitions, at the European championships, the world championships," Trankov said of the up-and-down nature of his and Volosozhar's winning free skate.
The pair, already double Grand Prix winners this season, were handsomely rewarded for the artistic side of their performance and scored 204.55 in total, a season best score.
Bazarova and Larionov skated clear of major errors as they racked up a total score of 201.60 points with a Spartacus-themed routine.
"Today we managed to skate it through cleanly. The feeling is that there we no mistakes or negatives at all," Bazarova said.
"Our emotions are overflowing. We're satisfied both with the result and the skating."
Former world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China had earlier put the Russians under pressure with a season-best score of 192.81, but were forced to settle for third.
"It's old injuries that are bothering us," Tong said. "Hopefully in the next competition we will be able to perform better."
Further back, the order remained the same from the short program as Canadian pairs took fourth and fifth, with former European champions Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov last.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford took fourth with a score of 187.09, followed by Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch, 6.64 points further back after a comparatively ragged free skate in which Moore-Towers fell from a lift spin during their skate to the music of Queen.
Kavaguti and Smirnov struggled on both days of competition and scored 178.72, almost 35 points off their personal best.
