Seoul, Korea

#4ContsFigure      #FigureSkating

China’s Wenjing Sui/Cong Han skated to their sixth Four Continents title as the Pairs event wrapped up at the ISU Four Continents Championships in Seoul (KOR) on Saturday. Cheng Peng/Yang Jin made it one-two for China by taking the silver medal. Kirsten Moore-Towers/Michael Marinaro of Canada dropped from first to third to earn the bronze medal.

Sui/Han turned in a strong performance to “Rain, In Your Black Eyes” by Ezio Bosso that featured a triple twist, side by side triple toeloop-double toeloop-double toeloop, a throw triple Salchow and flip as well as difficult lifts. The two-time World Champions collected a level four for all elements. Their only error came when Sui doubled the side by side Salchow.

Wenjing Sui and Cong Han

Gold medalists Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN) | 2020 © International Skating Union (ISU)

The Olympic silver medalists scored 144.34 points for the Free Skating and pulled up from third to first at 217.51 points total.

“Every time it is very special and very different. It gives us more confidence and trust,” Han said about winning their sixth Four Continents title.

“It (the title) is dear to me because we lost the Short Program but then we caught up with the long program and that is very special to me. Today we are quite satisfied we showed a good level of skating.

“We realized where we had problems and we’ll figure them out and make some adjustments as we prepare for the World Championships,” he continued.

Second place Cheng Peng and Yang Jin

Cheng Peng/Yang Jin made it a China 1-2 with their silver medal | 2020 © International Skating Union (ISU)

Skating to the “Cloud Atlas” soundtrack, Peng/Jin delivered as well, producing a triple Salchow, triple toe-double toe, triple twist and throw triple loop and Salchow. The ISU Grand Prix Final silver medalists earned a season’s best 137.33 points and totaled 213.29 points to repeat as silver medalists at the Four Continents.

“We are quite satisfied with our performance,” Peng said. “Our training before these Championships was not as solid as we would have liked it so there was some progress today.

“Now we want to train hard and prepare for the World Championship.”

KMT MM

Bronze medalsist Kirsten Moore-Towers/Michael Marinaro (CAN) | 2020 © International Skating Union (ISU)

Moore-Towers/Marinaro’s performance to “Carry You” by Ruelle was highlighted by their throw triple loop and excellent lifts. However, Marinaro fell on a transition move and they struggled with the solo jumps.

“The Canadian Champions were ranked fourth in the Free Skating with 125.44 points, but overall held on to third place at 201.80 points.

“It was a little bit rough for us today,” Moore-Towers admitted. “We don’t perform like this today as we do in training, so it was a bit of a head-scratcher.

“We’ve been practicing really well and it’s become apparent that we need to translate what we do in training into how we perform at competitions.

“We don’t have much to say but we will take what we learnt from this competition and change that going forward,” she continued.

Jessica Calalang/Brian Johnson (USA) came fourth on 196.15 points. Tarah Kayne/Danny O’Shea (USA) moved up from seventh to fifth on 186.20 points. Evelyn Walsh/Trennt Michaud (CAN) placed sixth (177.58 points).

Alexa Scimeca/Chris Knierim (USA) withdrew from the event due to family illness. They stood in fifth place following the Short Program.

Click here for full results.