China's figure skating duo Pang Qing and Tong Jian finished first in pairs short program at Moscow Worlds on Wednesday, scoring 74.00 points.

In the music "Je crois entendre encore" from "The Pearl Fishers", the defending champions presented a perfect performance in Moscow's Mega stadium.

After the competition, Tong told Xinhua that his performance was "more than expected", because he had made some mistakes in some jumps in morning practice.

"I'm not satisfied with my morning practice," Tong said. "But tonight I was happy with my jumps and the results gave me courage about tomorrow's segment.

Germany's Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy finished second with 72.98. Russia's Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov trailed at 70.35 to take the third.

Chinese pair Zhang Yue and Wang Lei finished 13th with 52.25 points, while another Chinese pair Dong Huibo and Wu Yiming finished 14th with 49.29 points.

The pairs free skating will be held on April 28.