Russia revel in day to remember at Rostelecom Cup in Sochi

Russia won three of the four figure skating events on home ice at the Rostelecom Cup in Sochi.

And Morisi Kvitelashvili made history as he claimed gold in the men's event for Georgia's first ever ISU Grand Prix title.

Kvitelashvili moved up from second in the short program to take the overall crown, with a score of 266.33 points overall.

Overnight leader Kazuki Tomono of Japan dropped down to bronze after coming fifth in the free skating, as Russia's Mikhail Kolyada top scored to advance to second with 264.64 points overall.

And the Georgian skater said: "Not everything worked in my program, but I tried hard, I fought and I am happy to be on the podium.

"We are making history and we have other great skaters in our team. We're going to have a complete team at the Olympic Games in Beijing, that's also a first."

In the pairs event, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov led a Russian one-two-three as they overtook Daira Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin to win with 226.98 points overall.

Pavliuchenko and Khodkyin dropped from first to second despite a personal best score in the long program as Iasmina Kadyrova and Ivan Balchenko earnt third with 193.58 points overall.

There was another clean sweep in the women's event, as Kamila Valieva scored a world record 87.42 points in the short program on the way to the title.

The 2020 world junior champion was joined on the podium by compatriots Malia Khromyk and Elizaveta Tutamysheva.

Despite the record, Valieva believes she is still searching for perfection, saying: "I almost did my maximum today.

"There is always a place for improvement, the combo was not so great.

"I enjoyed skating today, especially in the step sequence and I hope I was able to project the character I was trying to."

The Russian duo of Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov claimed their second ice dance Grand Prix title of the season, scoring 211.72 points - eight more than Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy with Canadian pair Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen posting 191.40 in third.

"We started the season and think we should continue the same way, improve with every competition," Sinitsina said.

"We made a small mistake today; we know what it was and we have time until the Grand Prix Final to polish it and fix it and got to the final in a great mood."