Bulgarian ice dance couple Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski took the lead after the compulsory dance of the world championship in Calgary, Canada.

Judges gave the Bulgarian couple the highest mark of 38.46 points after the compulsory dance, BGNES Sport agency reported. Canadians Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon ranked second with a mark of 38.31.

US couple Tanit Belbin and Benjamin Agosto take the third place with 37.59 points.

The free dance will occur on Thursday. Denkova and Staviski have high chance of keeping their good ranking, after the Bulgarians remained fifth in the Winter Olympics competition in Turin.

Other Bulgarian skaters failed to start the world championship with impressive performance. After the compulsory round Ivan Dinev takes the 22nd place with 27.39 points. Stephan Lambiel from Switzerland is in the lead.

Pair Rumiana Spasova and Stanimir Todorov ranked 16th after the short programme. Chinese couple Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao are in the lead with 65.58 points.