American pairs skaters advance to final

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The best skaters make a short program or short dance feel too brief, turning it into a tantalizing glimpse of talent confined to a cruelly abbreviated format.

The exquisite precision of world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China on Wednesday in the first phase of the Olympic pairs competition was a superb taste of a figure skating feast, the best dish in an extraordinarily delectable banquet staged at Gangneung Ice Arena.

Sui and Han’s stunning performance to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” brought them a personal-best score of 82.39 points but couldn’t distance them from Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of the Olympic Athletes from Russia, who have 81.68 points.

Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada are third at 76.82, with Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany fourth at 76.59. Savchenko, skating in a record-tying fifth Olympic pairs event with her third partner, is still a fiery competitor: While on the ice she asked Massot if he had doubled their planned side-by-side triple salchows, which he had.

Those lost points proved the difference in keeping them out of the top three entering Thursday’s free-skate finale.

The American husband and wife duo of Alexa Scimeca-Knierim and Chris Knierim, who contributed to the U.S. team bronze medal this week by skating their short and long programs, committed a few errors Wednesday.

She touched her hand down while landing a throw and he stepped out of a jump but they were among the 16 pairs that advanced to Thursday’s final.

They stand 14th, with 65.55 points. They did better in the short program during the team competition but said fatigue wasn’t to blame for their errors in the pairs competition.