BEIJING, Nov. 3(Xinhuanet)-- Russia figure skaters led all threeevents of the China ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating on Thursday, the opening day of the Grand Prix.

Maria Petrova/Alexei Tikhonov, silver medalists of the 2005 World Championships, scored a total of 62.76 points to lead the pairs skating after short program.

The Russian pair collected 34.16 points in the element score and 29.60 in the composition and led all eight pairs into the freeskating which will be held on Friday.

"It is a good program, but we made a little mistake," said Tikhonova."We want to improve our speed and power in our free program tomorrow."

Chinese pair Pang Qing/Tong Jian ranked second with 58.64 points, four points less than their Russia opponent.

"Four points deficit will give us much pressure on tomorrow's free program," said Tong, who crowned at the 2002 and 2004 Four Continents Figure Skating Championship with Pang."Our free skating program is a new routine, we wish we could have a good result."

Dorota Zagorska/Mariusz Siudek from Poland scored 56.06 points to list third after the short program.

Two times world champion Tatiana Navka/Roman Kostomarov, who drew to skate the very first of the opening day, showed their overwhelming power in the ice dancing and earned 36.83 points to lead the three-day tournament after the compulsory dance.

Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski from Israel ranked second with 34.23 points while Italian pair Federica Faiella/Massimo Scali third on 32.03.

Russian also shined on the women's single skating as Irina Slutskaya, the title holder of the 2005 World Championships as well as the European Championship, collected 70.22 points to lead the ten skaters.

The 26-year-old was followed by a Japan youngster Mao Asada. The 15-year-old Asada, who took the World Juniors title in 2005, had 62.92 points to rank second.

The third place went to another Japanese Shizuka Arakawa on 57.56 points. Arakawa was the gold medalist of the World Championship in 2004. Enditem