Chinese Peng Cheng and Jin Yang, fourth at the 2019 Saitama World Championships, led the pairs' short program of figure skating at the ISU Shanghai Trophy on Thursday.

Dancing to the music Alegria by Cirque du Soleil, Peng and Jin showed their ability to perform a clean short program for 77.12 points.

Russian pair Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovskii ranked second with 76.93.

"We tried our best tonight and skated as how we trained. But there are still some details needed to be improved," Jin said of the new short program they prepared for 2019/20 season.

"The short program is still far from being mature. We cherished the competition as a precious opportunity to practice," Jin added.

Another Chinese pair Tang Feiyao and Yang Yongchao, who just moved to senior competition this season, finished third with 64.68.

The ladies competition was also quite fierce as Russian Evgeniia Medvedeva, the Pyeongchang Olympic silver medalist, performed her short program with clean jumps and elegant spins to rank first with 72.16 points.

The 2019 worlds' runner-up Elizabet Tursynbayeva of Kazakhstan trailed behind with 69.24 and South Korean Lim Eun-soo was third with 62.87.

China's Chen Hongyi, who just turned 17 years old last month, fell in a jump to rank fourth with 53.85 points.

Ice dance pair Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov of Russia dominated the rhythm dance with 86.77 points, ahead of second-placed Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson of Britain with 76.43 points.