BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy took the lead in the ice dance competition after winning the short dance at the European figure skating championships on Thursday.
Performing waltz and polka to the Merry Widow by Franz Lehar, the 2014 European and world champions earned 72.31 points for their lively performance.
Defending champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France trailed by more than 1.5 points in second with 70.74 while the 2013 champions Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of Russia were third with 68.71.
In the short dance, competitors have 2 minutes, 50 seconds to perform required moves to a given music.
The free dance is scheduled for Saturday.
The championships in the Slovak capital continue with the men's free skate later Thursday.
