Anaheim, CA/USA

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Wenjing Sui and Cong Han dazzle their way to gold in Anaheim 2019©MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

Olympic silver medalists Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China clinched victory in the Pairs event at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2019 in Anaheim (USA) on Saturday by just 0.06 points, overtaking Canadians Kirsten Moore-Towers/Michael MarinaroCheng Peng/Yang Jin, also from China, earned the bronze medal. Moore-Towers/Marinaro and Peng/Jin won their first medals as a team at an ISU Championship.

Performing to “Rain, In Your Black Eyes” by Ezio Bosso, Sui/Han opened with a triple twist, a triple toe-double toeloop combination and throw triple Salchow. Sui then fell on an underrotated triple Salchow, but recovered to land a throw triple flip. The 2017 World Champions earned a level four for two lifts while the pair combination spin was rated a level two only.

Sui/Han scored 136.92 points and totaled 211.11 points to edge out Moore-Towers/Marinaro and take the fifth Four Continents Championships title of their career.

“We were pretty nervous,” said Sui. “I’m really happy we could show what we have today on the ice, but honestly this was not the best of us. We will do the best we can and continue training hard.

“This is our fifth Four Continents title, but it was my third time coming back (from injury). It’s very different every time I come back. I want to thank people who helped me and stood by me - my opponents, my partner and my coaches - they really helped us a lot.”

Han admitted the pair were not really ready for the competition “We were only showing what we have completed during our training, but actually we are not familiar with our program yet,” he said.

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Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro earned the silver medal in Anaheim 2019©MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Moore-Towers/Marinaro skated last and turned in a solid performance to a Pink Floyd Medley that featured a triple Salchow-double toe-double toe, triple toe, throw triple loop and Salchow and three level-four elements. However, their reverse lasso lift was shaky. The Canadian Champions were ranked second in the Free Skating with 136.39 points and slipped to second at 211.05 points overall.

“I think having the result being so close to winning is a little bit bittersweet for us. We’re proud of ourselves, but we know we left some good points on the table that maybe would have made for a result that we were more happy with, but if you would have told us last year we would have been disappointed at second, we would have called you crazy,” Moore-Towers said.

“We do something right, we know what we need to do and we’ll work for it for Worlds,” she added.

Peng/Jin produced a triple toe-double toe combination, triple twist, throw triple loop and Salchow as well as three level-four elements, but Jin doubled the solo Salchow while Peng stumbled on a triple. The ISU Grand Prix Final silver medalists picked up 135.94 points and remained in third place with 205.42 points overall.

We're not very satisfied with the performance today. We need to keep improving the quality,” Peng said.

“She did better than me today,” Jin said. “My landing of the triple jump was not very steady. But overall the program was good. This competition is a good learning experience and wake-up call.”

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Cheng Peng is thrown by her partner Yang Jin on their way to bronze 2019©MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

2018 Four Continents silver medalists Ashley Cain/Timothy Leduc (USA) delivered a solid performance to finish fourth at 196.82 points. Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier (USA) pulled up from seventh to fifth on 184.18 points while 2018 Four Continents Champions Tarah Kayne/Danny O’Shea (USA) slipped from fifth to sixth after a few errors (180.36 points).

Click on the highlighted text for entry listsfull results and the official event website. Follow the discussion on social media using #4ContsFigure and #FigureSkating.