Sui and Han dazzle home crowd

It was only fitting that world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were crowned victorious in pairs at the ISU Grand Prix Audi Cup of China on Saturday in Beijing, where they train. After Sui had surgery on both feet, they missed the first half of last season, while establishing themselves as the pre-eminent pairs team. They scored 150.93 points in the free skate to Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot” for a total of 231.07, racking up the most points on their opening quad twist lift.

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“This time we lost so many points,” Han said, “so next time we need to fix them to get to a level four for more points, in two weeks. She changed many positions and the step sequences. We need time to make this more comfortable in both programs. We need to practice the crossover jump. We will talk with our coach.”

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"We made small mistakes in both our short and long programs," Yu said, "but I am happy we were able to finish with a strong performance in front of our home crowd in the Cup of China. Last season we did the triple-throw and double Axel, and this season we changed to the triple Salchow. This is my first time to do a triple Salchow in competition, so I feel a little nervous."

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“We’re happy to start the season with a strong performance, but we have a lot of work to do in the coming weeks,” the 25-year-old Marinaro said.

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What are your thoughts overall on the pairs event?

gsk8 said:

What are your thoughts overall on the pairs event?

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I was very impressed with Moore-Towers / Marinaro, they were not in my radar at all but they were great!! :luv17:

I don´t like the programs of S/H but they are like V/M, they can sell anything. I hate covers and I even loved their exhibition.

I agree about Moore-Towers and Marinaro but I thought Sui and Han were brilliant. IIRC Lori Nichols did the choreography? for me the music was perfect, the choreo was perfect and the two of them skate as one. I'm picking them for the OGM.

I hope and presume Sui/Han will continue through 2022 when the Winter Games will be hosted in Beijing. They will be absolute rock stars. They probably already are at this point.

Aside from Sui/Han, the reigning World Champion and home favorites, I was deeply impressed by Yu/Zhang's SP program because they delivered the most memorable Swan Lake program this season in my opinion. Yu's delicate and lyrical arm movements were just those of swans while Zhang's solemn and gloomy but charismatic acting accentuated the purity of Yu.

I wasn't much into Moore-Towers and Marinaro because they didn't still seem to stabilize their technical elements yet, I felt a bit uncomfortable to watch them which caused me not to concentrate their performances. Marinaro needs more confidence and practices to catch up with Moore-Towers' caliber.

I enjoyed a lot the fun programs presented by Marchei and Hotarek, so cheered for them to win their first Grand Prix medal after their partnership. They could've won the GP at Cup of Russia but several minor errors didn't help them.

Sui/Han were fabulous in spite of their bland music choices compared to their previous dynamic and powerful programs. The SP was emotionally touching though, but not as much as the impact of last season's FS that made me shed tears in Helsinki. However, I really don't get they chose Turandot which inevitably is subject to be compared with Shen/Zhao's legendary program in pairs. The costumes are also very similar and their choreography is not satisfactory enough. If they bring out Turandot in Beijing Olympics, I would've been deeply touched by the long lasting legacy of Shen/Zhao and new Chinese pair trend that Sui/Han have created at their home field, but well...However they did great and are strong OGM candidates in South Korea. Though I would root harder for Savchenko/Massot with the two strongest programs in pairs.