China's Sui/Han win pairs title at Four Continents Figure Skating Champs

Olympic silver medalists Sui Wenjing/Han Cong of China clinched victory in the pairs event at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2019 held in Anaheim, California on Saturday by just 0.06 points, beating Canadians Kirsten Moore-Towers/Michael Marinaro to the second place.

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, of China, hold their gold medals after winning the pairs competition at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019, in Anaheim, Calif. [Photo: AP]

Peng Cheng/Jin Yang, also from China, earned the bronze medal.

Performing to "Rain, In Your Black Eyes" by Ezio Bosso, Sui/Han opened with a triple twist, a triple toe-double toeloop combination and throw triple Salchow. Sui then fell on an underrotated triple Salchow, but recovered to land a throw triple flip.

Sui/Han scored 136.92 points and totaled 211.11 points for the title.

"We were pretty nervous," said Sui. "I'm really happy we could show what we have today on the ice, but honestly this was not the best of us. We will do the best we can and continue training hard."

Han admitted the pair were not really ready for the competition. "We were only showing what we have completed during our training, but actually we are not familiar with our program yet," he said.

Moore-Towers/Marinaro, who finished first after the short program, scored 136.39 points in free skating and had 211.05 points overall.

"I think having the result being so close to winning is a little bit bittersweet for us. We're proud of ourselves, but we know we left some good points on the table that maybe would have made for a result that we were more happy with," Moore-Towers said.

"We do something right, we know what we need to do and we'll work for it for worlds," she added.

2018 Four Continents silver medalists Ashley Cain/Timothy Leduc of the United States delivered a solid performance to finish fourth at 196.82 points. Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier of the United States, pulled up from seventh to fifth on 184.18 points while 2018 Four Continents champions Tarah Kayne/Danny O'Shea, also from the United States, finished sixth after making a few errors in free skating.