SENDAI — Reigning European champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the pairs short program on the first night of action at the NHK Trophy on Thursday.
The duo, wearing flashy outfits (she in turquoise, he in white), skated nearly flawlessly to "Asoka," finishing with a personal best mark of 70.32 at Sendai City Gym in the last of this season's six Grand Prix events.
"We are happy with our performance tonight," said Szolkowy. "It was better than last week in Moscow (where they finished second at the Cup of Russia). We made a few mistakes on some small things, but overall it was good. We hope tomorrow will be better."