Beijing, China, February 19, 2022: China’s figure skating pair of Sui Wenjing and Han Cong have put themselves in pole position for gold when the competition concludes at the Capital Indoor Stadium on Saturday night.
The Chinese combo scored 84.41 points in the pairs short programme on Friday to lead the 16 qualifiers into Saturday’s finale, when they will be bidding to improve on their silver medal at PyeongChang 2018. It was the highest score ever for a pairs short programme.
The two-time world champions will perform their free skate to the Paul Simon classic Bridge Over Troubled Water – and they will be hoping it will not be a bridge too far with three pairs from the mighty Russian Olympic Committee breathing down their necks.
Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov are in second place by the slimmest of margins with 84.25; Anastasia Mishina/Aleksandr Galliamov are third on 82.76 and Aleksandra Boikova/Dmitrii Kozlovski are fourth with 78.59.
China’s second pair, Peng Cheng/Jin Yang, are in fifth position after the short programme with 76.10 points.
Looking back on their silver medal finish at PyeongChang four years ago, Sui said: "Each competition is different, but this time it's extremely different for us because we are competing in our home country. It empowers us to perform better.”
She said that the ROC team in second place, Tarasova/Morozov, were their friends as well as their competitors.
“This is something we are very proud of, because we can maintain this high level of competition between the two pairs; it has been more than 10 years.
"It's a wonderful thing to compete with each other. We are improving because of each other."
Her partner Han, with whom she has skated since 2007, added: "We did our best and enjoyed this whole process. We're happy about the score and the recognition of the spectators, and we made a world record. It's important for us to catch the opportunity when we have it."
Looking ahead to the free skate on Saturday night, Han said they had built a solid platform on which to mount a gold medal challenge.
"We hope we can show our best technical skills and artistry, to show the four years of our hard work."
Photo: ISU Figure Skating