TURIN, Italy - Chinese Zhang Dan/Zhang Hao had a clear lead after the short program in the pairs of the figure skating events of the Winter Universiade on Friday.

China's figure skating pair Zhang Dan (1st right) and Zhang Hao (middle) have their photo taken with a games official before Turin Winter Universiade athletes' village January 16, 2006. [Xinhua]

The Olympic silver medalists were on the way to win the first gold medal for China in the Universiade by scoring 65.42 points, 10.62 points ahead of the second-placed Tatiana Volosozhar/Stanislav Morozov of Ukraine.

Russian pair Arina Ushakova and Sergei Karev were on the third with 47.48 points.

"I'm really happy with our performance. The 65.42 points is a high scoring for us even when we are in good form," Zhang Hao said.

The Chinese pair hadn't trained until four days before they came to Turin last weekend because Zhang Dan had a heart ailment last December.

Zhang Hao was constantly hit by minor injuries on the back and elbow and didn't have regular training when Zhang Dan was hospitalized.

The Universiade is the first event for them this season and the only other competition the pair will compete is the World Championships in March.

"I'm not fully recovering from the heart problem. The main task for us is to have enough rest and prepare for the competitions of next season," Zhang Dan said.

"We had an almost flawless short program today. I felt relieved not because we're leading by a big margin, but because we finished it perfectly," Zhang Hao added.