Soviet skaters Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov...
Soviet skaters Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov took the early lead in pairs competition at the World Figure Skating Championships in Geneva.
The Soviets, skating to the music of Scott Joplin, dominated the compulsory short program for pairs.
Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev, the defending champions, were in second place, followed by Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov, last year’s runners-up.
In fourth place were Canadian champions Cynthia Coull and Mark Rowsom. U.S. champions Gillian Wachsman and Todd Waggoner were fifth.
In the men’s compulsory figures, defending world champion Alexander Fadeev gained an early edge with the low score. The top American, Brian Boitano, of Sunnyvale, Calif., was fourth, behind Jozef Sabovcik of Czechoslovakia and Heiko Fischer of West Germany.
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