Alena Kostornaia led a trio of Russian teenagers at the top of the women's short programme at the European figure skating championships in Graz on Friday. Kostornaia, at 16 the eldest of the three, opened up a significant advantage ahead of Saturday's free skate with 84.92 points. Anna Shcherbakova, with 77.95 points, and Alexandra Trusova, on 74.95, will be counting on deploying their quadruple jumps to claw back their year older compatriot's advantage. Kostornaia arrived in Austria on the back of her record-breaking win in December's Grand Prix Final title. The girl from Moscow achieved a new record score in the short programme at Turin of 85.45 for a best ever total of 247.59 to beat Shcherbakova and Trusova. She will be relying on her series of triple Axels to woo the Graz jury and deny her two training partners. All three are making their European Championships debut after graduating from the junior ranks with Russia on course for a seventh straight ladies title. Three Russian couples dominate the pairs standings ahead of Friday evening's free skate final. The figure skating supergiant has already claimed gold in Graz with Dmitri Aliev clinching the men's crown vacated by Spanish star Javier Fernandez on Thursday. es/jr/nr/dj