The European figure skating championships have carried on, even as the skating world mourned athletes who died when an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C.

Among those athletes competing in Wichita are former and hopefully future Olympians, many of whom are also defending national champions.

Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin put themselves firmly on course for their first European figure skating title Wednesday in the pairs short program. Coming off a win at the Grand Prix Final last month,

Anastasiia Gubanova has taken a narrow lead in the short program as she aims to regain her title at the European figure skating championships.