Russia’s Valieva sets short programme record

SOCHI, Russia: Russian teenager Kamila Valieva shored up her status as favourite for women’s figure skating gold at the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics with a record-breaking short programme on Friday.

The 15-year-old, competing at the Russian Grand Prix, earned a score of 87.42 points for her opening routine on the Sochi ice - shattering the previous mark (85.45) by almost two points.

The 2020 world junior champion now holds a full hand of records, adding this to her best ever scores in the free programme (180.89) and total (265.08) at Skate Canada in October.

The Eteri Tutberidze-disciple leads fellow Russian Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (80.10) by a gaping seven points going into Saturday’s free routine at the venue of the 2014 Winter Games.