Canada's Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps jump into pairs lead at figure skating worlds

Canadian pair Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps put forth an electrifying performance to place first in the short program at the world figure skating championships Wednesday afternoon.

Stellato-Dudek of Chicago and Deschamps of Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., shattered their season-best with a 77.48 score while skating to Cirque du Soleil's "Oxygene." The duo received a standing ovation from a mostly full lower bowl at the Bell Centre.

Defending champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan finished second (73.53) and Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii were third (72.88).

The free program is set for Thursday evening.

WATCH | Stellato-Dudek, Deschamps soar to top spot:

Lia Pereira of Milton, Ont., and Trennt Michaud of Brantford, Ont., advanced with a ninth-place finish (64.83).

The three Canadian pairs received loud applause from passionate partisan fans throughout their routines.

Later Wednesday, two-time national champion Madeline Schizas of Oakville, Ont., competes as Canada's only entry in the women's short program. Japan's Kaori Sakamoto is the two-time defending women's world champion. Live coverage begins at 4:50 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

WATCH | CBC Sports' That Figure Skating Show previews worlds:

The competition continues Thursday afternoon with the men's short program and ends Saturday night with the men's free program.

It's Montreal's first time hosting the event since 1932 and the first world championship on Canadian soil since 2013 in London, Ont. Canada has hosted the competition 11 times.

Montreal was supposed to host the worlds in 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the competition mere days before it was set to begin.