China's two-time world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong claimed the figure skating pairs title at the Beijing Winter Olympics here on Saturday.
Sui/Han led both short program and free skate, collecting 239.88 points in total for the victory, which was the ninth gold for Team China at Beijing 2022.
"It's a great pride for figure skating, and a brilliant performance of the Chinese pair," commented Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The PyeongChang silver medalists Sui/Han who missed the top honor by a mere 0.43 points in South Korea, finally fulfilled their dream at home to become the second Chinese pairs skaters winning the Olympic gold, after pairs couple Shen Yue and Zhao Hongbo, also coach of Sui/Han, awarded China its first Olympic gold of figure skating at Vancouver 2010.
"I accepted what has given to me from the world, because I think everything has its right choice," Sui said.
"We wish to deliver the strength through our performance to all people to come together and go through all difficulties together," explained Han, who expressed gratitude for the support from Sui and his team.
Skating to "Bridge Over Troubled Water," the pair landed a rare quadruple twist lift in their routine, an overhead throw which no other competitors attempted.
"The quadruple twist lift was the key to their victory," analyzed Zhao, adding that he is really proud of the pair.
Eugenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) took the silver on 239.25 and reigning European and world champions Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov of ROC bagged the bronze on 237.71.
"We've been working for years to get this medal, so just to get it means a lot to us," said Morozov, the silver medalist.
The other Chinese pair Peng Cheng and Jin Yang, runners-up of the 2020 Four Continents Championships, finished fifth in 214.84.
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