Stunning stunt
Skating duo wins world championship with moves close to perfect
China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were in sensational form as they claimed the pairs gold medal at the ISU Figure Skating World Championships in Saitama, Japan, on Thursday.
Skating to Ezio Bosso’s Rain in Your Black Eyes, the Chinese duo delivered a near-perfect performance, completing a triple toe-double toe-double toe combination, triple twist, triple Salchow, throw triple flip and throw triple Salchow, as well as level-four lifts.
They earned 155.60 points for the free skate to move up from second with a season-best total of 234.84 to nail down their second world title.
“It’s a magic day for us,” said Han. “It’s wonderful to be back on top of the world. I enjoyed the free program so much that I wanted to perform more. I wish the season could continue, but it is over, so we will start preparing for next season.”
Overnight leaders Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia, who placed fourth at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, picked up 147.26 points and slipped to second with a total of 228.47. Another Russian pair, Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert, took the bronze with 217.98.
China’s Peng Cheng and Jin Yang were fourth, with 215.84 points.
The victory capped a comeback season for Sui and Han. After winning a silver at the Pyeongchang Games, Sui injured her foot and was sidelined for most of the remainder of last year.
They missed the 2018 worlds as well as the Grand Prix series before returning to international competition at this year’s Four Continents championships, where they took the title by a mere 0.06 points.
“We are very happy to have shown our best performance and to win this championship,” said Sui. “We are better than we were at the Four Continents.
“We had a tough time this season. We could not prepare so well and did not have much time to practice. Our coaches and our team gave us a lot of support and we knew we could make it and get the title.
“Winning the second time was harder. It really was a team effort.
“I am so happy that we performed our best today. I remember the last time we skated two clean programs at the worlds was in Shanghai in 2015.”
Meanwhile, Peng and Jin improved a lot this season in both their jumps and exhibition. They turned in a clean program to La Vie en Rose, but still dropped from third to fourth place.
“It’s a little sad we didn’t get a medal, but we did our best,” said Peng.
Reigning European champions Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres of France rallied back from a disappointing short program, coming third in the free skating and pulling up from seventh to fifth with 215.19 points.