China wins ice dance at Asian Winter Games

Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu [Photo: qq.com]

Chinese Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu won the ice dance gold medal on Friday, which is the eighth title for China at the ongoing Asian Winter Games.

Wang and Liu, who led the short dance on Thursday, posted a total score of 164.28 points to claim the top honors ahead of Japanese Kana Muramoto/Chris Reed, who collected a total of 159.14. China's Chen Hong/Zhao Yan came third in 142.42.

"I am excited because it is my first Asian Winter Games gold medal," said Wang, who scored 98.26 in the free dance.

Wang accidentally cut her knee by Liu's ice skate blade during the short dance and received three stitches.

"Yes, it hurts. My doctor asked me not to move in the sleep, so I tried to keep still in the whole night. It's hard," said Wang, who burst into tears after winning the title. "I felt nervous in the free dance, because I was worrying about my knee."

"I have never met this kind of accident before," she added. "I tried to focus on the dance and not to think about it, but it was difficult."

Wang and Liu were happy to beat the hosts at the Games.

"The Japanese pair was better than us last season, but this time we performed better," said Liu. "We trained hard in the United States and now all the efforts are paid off."

"We improved a lot from foreign training," he added. "The coach helped us a lot."

Both the Chinese pairs are trained under foreign coach Pasquale Camerlengo.

"He taught me how to perform a story in ice dance and how to be the leading role in the story," Wang said.

The other Chinese duo, Chen and Zhao, were also happy with their bronze.

"We performed to our normal level, and it's good to win the bronze," Zhao said.