Jin leads the way in men's short program at Cup of China
CHONGQING, China (AP) - Chinese skater Boyang Jin had no trouble adjusting to a new program and finished first in the short program at the Cup of China on Friday.
Jin, known for crowd-pleasing performances, received 103.94 points to finish comfortably ahead of Han Yan with 92.56. Yudong Chen was third with 75.74 points.
Skating to 'œTrio in D'ť and 'œMechanisms'ť by Kirill Richter, the two-time world bronze medalist opened his routine with a quadruple lutz and followed with a quadruple toeloop-double toeloop combination. He also added a triple axel.
'œI did not have so much time to prepare for this competition and this is a new choreography,'ť Jin said. 'œI got the program and new skating boots at the end of September. Two weeks ago I performed this program for the first time at a test skate and today was only the second time.'ť
The Cup of China is the second event of the International Skating Union's Grand Prix series but has been scaled down because of the coronavirus.
There were no spectators allowed at the Chongqing Huaxi Culture and Sports Center. The competition normally draws skaters from around the world but was limited to domestic athletes because of travel restrictions.
COVID-19 has forced Olympic qualifiers and other major international competitions in China to be canceled or relocated, but the staging of the ISU event is a sign that things are slowly returning to normal.
With the Beijing Olympics scheduled for February 2022, the Cup of China is being used by the China Skating Association to gauge the progress of some of its most promising skaters.
Hongyi Chen was first after the women's short program with 64.63 points. Angel Li was second with 49.94 points, followed by Minzhi Jin with 47.75.
'œI am quite satisfied with my performance and I was able to do what I do in my regular practice,'ť Chen said. 'œI was a little nervous after not competing in a while and I think I need to get used to the lights and the atmosphere again. It was good that we had two test skates before in my team.'ť
In ice dancing, Shiyue Wang and Xinyu Liu held a comfortable lead after the rhythm dance with 84.23 points. Hong Chen and Zhouming Sun were second with 76.57 points, followed by Wangqi Ning and Chao Wang with 69.07.
Cheng Peng and Yang Jin led after the pairs short program with 75,62 points. Yuchen Wang and Yihang Huang were second with 63.56 points, followed by Daizifei Zhu and Yuhang Liu with 54.37.
The next round of the ISU Grand Prix series is the Rostelecom Cup in Russia from Nov. 20-22.
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