Turin/ Italy

 

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China’s Wenjing Sui/Cong Han skated off with the gold at the Gran Premio d’Italia ahead of teammates Cheng Peng/Yang Jin. Iuliia Artemeva/Mikhail Nazarychev of Russia earned the bronze in their debut at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating.

Sui/Han completed a triple twist, triple toe-double toe-double toe, triple Salchow and throw triple flip in their program to “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. The twist, reverse lasso lift and the rarely seen forward outside death spiral merited a level four while two lifts received a level three. The two-time ISU World Champions scored 144.48 points and racked up 224.55 overall.

SuiHan goldpairs

Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China © International Skating Union (ISU)

“It’s a hard month for us with three competitions and we change a lot of time zones. I feel today, after the short program, my energy and body are not really well, but we did well,” Sui told the press.

“We still have some problems we need to fix. I think we can keep working on making the program.”

Skating to “The Banquet” soundtrack, Peng/Jin put on a solid performance that included a triple toe-double toe, triple twist, throw triple Salchow and level-four lifts. However, she underrotated the triple Salchow and stepped out of the throw triple loop.

Peng Yang silverpairs

Cheng Peng and Yang Jin of China © International Skating Union (ISU)

“This is our first and only Grand Prix. We really treasure the opportunity to be on the ice and a competition. We want to thank the audience and this experience means a lot to us,” Peng said.

Artemeva/Nazarychev’s program to “Fire On Fire” by Sam Smith and “Chronos” by Kirill Richter included a double Axel-Euler-triple Salchow, triple twist and throw triple loop, but she fell on the triple toeloop and stepped out of the throw triple flip.

The 2020 ISU World Junior bronze medalists earned 125.11 points and moved up one spot to take bronze at 187.01 points.

Bronze Rus pairs Iuilia

Iuliia Artemeva and Mikhail Nazarychev of Russia © International Skating Union (ISU)

“We prepared really hard for this Grand Prix, the practices went well and our skate should have been like the practice, but I guess we lacked some work and we have a second event soon in France.

“We'll try to fix all our mistakes and show what we want - the best we can do and beautiful skating,” Nazarychev said.

Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise (ITA) dropped from third to fourth as they struggled with their solo jumps and she fell on the throw triple loop. (179.26 points).  Rebecca Ghilardi/Filippo Ambrosini (ITA) came fifth with 165.45 points.

Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (GER) withdrew from the Pairs event due to medical reasons. They stood in 8th place following the Short Program.

For the full results, see here.