Evgenia Medvedeva and Nathan Chen kick off Rostelecom Cup in style

In the first leg of six in the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series, Medvedeva's domination of the women's competition continued as she scored 80.75 points – just 0.1 off her world record.

That was a whopping six points ahead of Italy's Carolina Kostner, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist herself finishing five clear of Wakaba Higuchi of Japan.

Two-time world champion Medvedeva, 17, put late jumps into her program – set to a Chopin nocturne – to surge clear of her rivals.

Meanwhile in the men's competition, USA national champion Nathan Chen landed two quads to take the lead in the short program, beating Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu by nearly six points.

Chen's score of 100.54 was 12 clear of starlet Dmitri Aliev of Russia - who ended the day in third - with the American landing a quad flip confidently late in his program after a quad lutz and triple-toe loop.

Russia's Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov lead the pairs ahead of compatriots Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, with Italian duo Valentina Marchei and Ondrej Hotarek in third.

And brother-and-sister duo Maia and Alex Shibutani scored highest in the ice dancing, with the Americans followed by Russians Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, and Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin.