Tina Wang has finished in 37th place in a field of 53 skaters in her world figure skating championship debut in Gothenburg, Sweden, while Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman have finished in 27th place in a field of 30 in the ice dancing.

Wang missed out on qualifying for a place in the final 24, but the 17-year-old Brisbane skater performed well in the short program to register a score of 34.00, just short of the personal best 35.77 points she posted in the world junior championships last year.

Italy's Carolina Kostner leads the ladies’ field on 64.28 points from 2007 world championship silver medalist Mao Asada on 64.10.

Asada’s compatriot Yukari Nakano is in third place on 61.10.

O’Brien and Merriman were in 28th place on 20.24 points after the opening compulsory dance, but moved up a place in the original dance, finishing with 61.2 points.

"Dani and Greg who did their best original dance today," said 2008 World Championship Team Leader Melina Simjanovic. "(It was a) job very well done for them at their first worlds. I think they are a little disappointed not to have been 1-2 places higher, but they did a season's best which is fantastic."

"(They also) looked very different from the others with their aboriginal theme."

Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France lead the competition going into the free dance on 107.98 points.

Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitsky of Russia are in second place on 103.97, just ahead of the Canadian pair of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.