Bermuda's Vanessa James and partner Yannick Bonheur are sitting in tenth place following their impressive pairs opening short programme yesterday at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin, Italy.

The two, who skate for France, had a score of 55.60 which is their best yet.

And last night James' mother June said: "Vanessa and Yannick did very well today and skated their season's best. I'm thrilled to death! They will be skating the long programme (today) to the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack by various composers."

That is the same long programme which earned them a standing ovation last month at the Vancouver Olympics where they finished in 14th place.

Leading after yesterday's short programme are the Vancouver silver medallists Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China after a near flawless show produced marks of 75.28. Russia's Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov are second. Third are the defending champions and Olympic bronze medallists Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany.

James, who attended Mount St. Agnes until the age of 10, and partner Bonheur were the 13th pair on the ice and following their performance moved initially into second place.

They had a score of 32.28 for the technical element with a score of 23.22 for their programme components to give them a score of 55.60.

Yesterday they skated to Tango by the Gotan Project which was choreographed by Sergei Zaitsev.