Bermuda's Vanessa James and partner Yannick Bonheur finished in 13th place yesterday after their free programme at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin, Italy.

The two, skating for France, were in 10th place after Tuesday's short programme and also had their best short score this season – 55.60 – after skating to Tango by the Gotan Project.

Yesterday in the all-important free skate programme the two performed to Romeo and Juliet by various composers and came away with a score of 90.98 which was not quite as good as their season's best – a 99.24 at the European Championships where they finished in seventh place.

Winning the gold yesterday were the 2010 Olympic silver medallists Pang Qing and Tong Jian and it was their second pairs title at the World Figure Skating Championships.

Pang and Tong's strong routine to Impossible Dream easily secured the title, despite a small error in side-by-side jumps. The Chinese pair also won in 2006, another post-Olympic World Championships.

Pang and Tong finished ahead of the two-time defending world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany. Russia's Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, fresh from a disappointing fourth at the Olympics, took the bronze for a second straight year.

Yesterday James and Bonheur had a score of 46.58 for the technical element and a score of 44.40 for the programme component score.

At the Olympics last month in Vancouver where they became the first black pairs to compete, they finished in 14th place with a dynamic and riveting programme which earned them a standing ovation. They also performed to Romeo and Juliet which was choreographed by Dominique Molina.

At the 2009 World Championships they finished in 12th place.