By Johanna Bear<\/p>\n
For the second year in a row, Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China emerged victorious from the pairs competition at the ISU Four Continents Championships, this year held in the newly-built ice arena in Gangneung, Korea, the figure skating venue for the 2018 Winter Olympics Games. China’s top pairs team was returning to competition for the first time this season following a 10-month layoff as a result of Sui\u2019s foot operation. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cToday we performed the emotion and story of the program,\u201d Han said. \u201cI am glad that we’ve overcome the pressure and regained confidence through this competition. We are reassured that we are able to get back what we’ve lost.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Sui and Han performed their \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water\u201d as if they had never left, clearly connecting the trials in their program\u2019s vocals into their own experiences building confidence and experience after Sui\u2019s injury. The 2016 World silver medalists had a total competition score of 225.03 points with the help of a huge quadruple twist, which represented a new personal best for both combined score and free skate score. <\/span><\/p>\n While Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford bested Sui and Han last season at the World Championships, the Chinese team\u2019s continued Four Continents dominance, left Duhamel and Radford in second place with the silver medal and a total score of 212.23 points. The two-time defending World Champions had a series of small mistakes throughout their free skate including Duhamel putting her hand down on their side-by-side triple Lutz-double toeloop combination, and Radford turning that intended triple toeloop into a single, as well as Duhamel putting her hand down on their attempted throw quadruple Salchow. However they were able to move up from third place after the short program to second overall, increasing their confidence going into the World Championships.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think today was one of those fighting skates for us, which is kind of the feeling for us so far this season,\u201d Radford said. \u201cConsidering how we were feeling going into this long program, we’re both very proud of ourselves that we fought through and managed to stay on our feet. It’s always a bit of an up-and-down feeling throughout the season, and we’ll take this as a positive step toward the world championships in March.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Fellow Canadians Liubov Ilyushechkina and Dylan Moscovitch won their first ISU Championship medal, bronze, with a total score of 205.31 points. They were able to move up from fourth place after the short program to third at the conclusion of the free skate. Ilyushechkina and Moscovitch skated a tender program to \u201cWhen You Say You Love Me,\u201d performed by Josh Groban, and their only mistakes were shaky side-by-side triple Salchows and a fall on their throw triple loop. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe’re very happy with how today went and this competition as a whole,\u201d Moscovitch said after the free skate. \u201cEach event this season has seen us improve, and we’ve been moving in the right direction throughout the season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is very exciting for me to win the medal for the country which I love the most and which I am passionate about,” the Russian-born Ilyushechkina added. \u201cThis is my third Four Continents and the first championship medal. It gives me a nice feeling when thinking about the improvements we’ve made as a team and about the way I went to get to this point. It definitely sets up the excitement for the next big steps.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Recently wedded Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim<\/a> had an emotional return to competition following Scimeca Knierim\u2019s illness last summer and subsequent stomach surgery in the fall. In their first competition since their wedding in June, they debuted two romantic programs to \u201cCome What May\u201d from the Moulin Rouge<\/em> soundtrack (SP) and selections from the musical, Ghost<\/em> (FS), and finished in sixth place with a total score of 193.91 points. Their free skate was highlighted by their trademark sky high triple twist and big triple throw jumps. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think it feels different, I really do,\u201d said Scimeca Knierim of competing as a married couple. \u201cAnd I think it might have to do with everything we\u2019ve been through this year with my illness. It was coincidentally around the same time that we got married, but with all we\u2019ve gone through together, it really is a different place. It feels like nothing can harm us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re more connected,\u201d Knierim added. \u201cBeing married hasn\u2019t really changed our off-ice or our training at all. As far as skating, it didn\u2019t change much of that. But competing now, married, I feel more connected to her while I\u2019m skating. I\u2019m not listening to the noise that\u2019s going on all around me, I\u2019m just looking at her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n 2017 U.S. Champions Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier had issues with their side-by-side jumps, but skated with good connection to each other and their music, finishing eighth with a total competition score of 179.45 points. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere were some good things and some things that need to be better,\u201d Denney said. \u201cThere were technical issues. I held back a little bit on my jumps, and that was the biggest thing today. We\u2019re going to take the experience of getting out there more and skating under pressure with us. We took almost a year off with the injury [to Denney\u2019s right knee], then came back, relearned our stuff and got right back into competition. We\u2019re trying to work through everything the best that we can and really take our time to do things well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n