MOSCOW – Alina Zagitova led the European Figure Skating championships in her debut after the short program with a dramatic performance of strong and precise jumps on Thursday.

Russians swept the pairs medals, led by defending champions Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, whose free skate vaulted them to gold despite finishing fifth in the short program a day earlier.

The 2017 gold medalists headed an all-Russian podium in the pairs with Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov taking silver while Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert claimed bronze.

But they pulled a sweet success out of the bag in an immaculate free dance set to “Candyman” by Christina Aguilera, which earned them a personal best 151.23 tally for a total score of 221.60.

They led the pack after Wednesday’s short program to conjure up real hope of claiming the title for France for the first time in 86 years, but in the end had to settle for fourth.