The Italian ice dancers Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte (R) celebrate their victory on the second day of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Jan. 16, 2014. The Italian duo won gold medal with a final score of 171.61 in the ice dance competition. They were bronze medalists at the 2013 European Championships. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)

The Italian ice dancing duo of Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte held onto their short program lead to take first place on Thursday at the 2014 European Figure Skating Championships with a final score of 171.61 points following an amazing performance.

Their closest rivals, Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov, finished with 170.51 points, with a similarly dazzling performance marred by a fall by Ilinyka that likely cost them the championship.

British skaters Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland held onto third place with a final score of 158.69, well behind the leaders but way ahead of the fourth place Russian duo of Victoria Sinitsina and Ruslan Zhiganshin, who only managed a 153.73.

Cappellini and Lanotte were bronze medalists at the 2013 European Championships, while Ilinykh and Katsalapov took silver. Coomes and Buckland were fifth last year.

Meanwhile, in the men's short program, last year's winner, 23- year-old Javier Fernandez of Spain, received 91.56 points to take a sizable lead over Russia's second place skater, 27-year-old Sergei Voronov, who finished with 85.51 points. The 28-year-old Czech skater Tomas Verner finished third by 83.51.

Voronov's score was helped significantly by a quad toe loop triple toe loop combination that stunned the audience.

Russia's 19-year-old Maxim Kovtun was fourth with 83.15 but is not out of the running by any means. The men's free skating will be on Saturday.

The European Championships will continue on Friday with the pair's short program and the women's free skating.