Tanja Romano of Italy led after the women's artistic roller skating short program at the World Games in Kaohsiung Tuesday, while compatriot Roberto Riva was in second on the men's side. Chinese Taipei's Wang Hsiao-chu was in fifth with a score of 77.5 after the short program in the women's event, while compatriot Yeh Chia-chen was eighth in the men's division with 80.9 points, in a competition being held at I-Shou University Gymnasium. In the short program, skaters perform a number of compulsory figures and jumps and set sequences that are primarily scored on technical merit. Romano, the 23-year-old world number one, finished first with a score of 95.7 and led Nika Arcon of Slovenia by 7.5 points. Monika Lis of German and Lindsay Mann of USA were in third and fourth place with 81 and 80.4 points respectively. In the men's competition, world No. 1 Roberto Riva of Italy could only manage a 92.6, good enough for second behind Carles Gasset Paris of Spain by 1.4 points. Marcel Sturmer of Brazil is in third place with 90.4, followed by Frenchman Francois Cattoire, Raphael Egli of Swiss, Joshua Rhoads of the U.S., and Shingo Nishiki of Japan. In the original team dance competition, Italians Enrica Gasparini and Gabriele Gasparini, the 2004 Artistic World silver medal winners, received the highest score with 94.3 points. Compatriots Sara Venerucci and Matteo Guarise, the winners of the pairs competition in the 2008 Artistic Roller Skating World Championship, are leading the pairs short program with a score of 95.5 points. Teams representing host Chinese Taipei are currently in last place in both the team dance and pairs events. 