Olympic silver medalists Pang Qing and Tong Jian won the pairs competition at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships yesterday, turning in an impressive performance in the free skate.
The world champions wowed the crowd with a precise and fluent skating display, scoring a season’s best 128.04 points for a total of 199.45.
Despite the win, Tong is looking to improve next time out.
Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters
“I hope we will do better in next month’s world championships because today we were not totally in control,” Tong said.
Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford were second with 181.79 points and Canadian teammates Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers were third with 171.73.
Earlier, world champion Daisuke Takahashi of Japan surged to a commanding lead after the men’s short program.
Takahashi nailed his triple flip and triple toeloop with precision and combined cheekiness and sultry elegance to register 83.49 points, comfortably ahead of the US’ Jeremy Abbot, his nearest rival with 76.73.
Takahashi’s compatriot Yuzuru Hanyu was third with 76.43 points.
Japan’s Takahiko Kozuka had been expected to challenge Takahashi, but a disappointing performance left him in sixth place with 66.25 points.
Skating to an upbeat medley of Latin music, Takahashi delighted the crowd at the Taipei Arena with his near flawless program, leaving little doubt that he will be a force to be reckoned with at next month’s world championships in Tokyo.
The Four Continents competition concludes tomorrow. It is as a counterpart to the European Championships and features skaters from the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Today’s schedule:
13:00: Ladies short program
18:00: Men’s free skating
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