Boston / United States

The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2016 continued Friday in Boston, USA with the Pairs Short Program.

Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN) claim Pairs Short Program

Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China claimed the Pairs Short Program. Canada’s Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford came second and Russians Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov are currently ranked third. 22 couples competed in the Pairs Short Program.

Sui/Han’s Spanish themed routine was highlighted by a set of side by side triple toes, a high triple twist and throw triple flip. The 2015 World silver medalists collected a level four for the lift, the death spiral and the footwork to score a personal best of 80.85 points. “We are happy that we’ve done the best we can, but we don’t want to think too much about the placement or the score; we just want to focus on our performance, and do it again in tomorrow’s free skate”, Han said. “After the Four Continents, we have looked into the problems we had like spins, and have been training hard in training to fix those. I believe we are well-prepared now. We will go for the quad throw and the quad twist. We’ve been doing well in training, we want to deliver the best we can do tomorrow”, he continued.

Performing to “Your Song” by Elton John, defending World Champions Duhamel/Radford completed a side by side triple Lutz, a triple twist, throw triple flip and earned a level four for four elements. The reigning ISU Grand Prix Final silver medalists set a new personal best of 78.18 points for themselves. “It’s been a rough season, internationally we have not done that program clean. That was the main focus coming into this World Championships, to finally come and do it the way we know we can. It feels so good. It’s the first time we are trying to defend our title, and we felt nervous. It‘s the best feeling when the music ends and you know you have done your best program”, Duhamel noted.

Volosozhar/Trankov’s Bollywood program featured a side by side triple Salchow, high triple twist and two level-four elements. However, Volosozhar two-footed the throw triple flip. The Olympic Champions earned 77.13 points. “It wasn’t our very best, but many elements we did very well. Tanja two-footed the throw, maybe she played it safe, because she didn’t feel comfortable skating last. It’s been a while since we skated last. This is also our first Worlds in three years and it feels a little bit like the first time. It’s a tough season for us. It feels like we are not pardoned anything. It is a lesson for us. We have to skate perfectly”, Trankov told the press.

Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot (GER) came fourth at 74.22 points. Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (RUS) are currently ranked fifth (73.98 points) followed by Evgenia Tarsova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS) with 72.00 points.

The ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2016 continue Friday with the Men’s Free Skating.