Gold medalists Yuko Kavaguti (3rd L) and Alexander Smirnov (3rd R) of Russia, silver medalists Sui Wenjing (1st L) and Han Cong (2rd L) of China and bronze medalists Yu Xiaoyu (2nd R) and Jin Yang of China pose during the awarding ceremony of the pairs category at the 2015 Audi Cup ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Beijing, capital of China, on Nov. 7, 2015. (Xinhua/Guo Yong)
China's world championships silver medallists Sui Wenjing/Han Cong took second in the Figure Skating Cup of China pairs competition in Beijing on Saturday, while Japanese ace Mao Asada won the ladies title despite a flawed free skating.
Sui/Han, Skate America winners, performed to the music "Samson and Deliah" and opened the program with a neat quad twist lift, but they gave up the throw quad salchow and Sui fell on the triple toeloop-double toeloop-double toeloop.
They earned 215.62 points, 0.38 point shy of the winners Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov of Russia.
"I injured my right ankle on Tuesday," said Sui. "So we could not practice the throw quad salchow in our training."
"There is some regret but I am still happy about the result," Sui added.
Another Chinese pair Yu Xiaoyu/Jin Yang came third in 197.75.
Japan's three-time figure skating world champion Mao Asada won the ladies title. The Vancouver Olympic runner-up only took third with 125.75 points in free skating, but still clinched the title by a total of 197.48 points thanks to a neat short program on Friday.
The 2015 Four Continents bronze medallist Rika Hongo took silver with 195.76, while Russia's 2015 World bronze medallist Elena Radionova came third in 184.28.
Asada opened her performance to "Madame Butterfly" with a triple axel, but fell on the triple flip-triple loop combination and skipped the triple lutz.
"For the free skating, I don't satisfied with the performance. I didn't do all the elements as I planned. There were many problems."
The Cup of China is Asada's first Grand Prix competition in two years after taking a leave following her gold at the 2014 world championships.
Hongo, who skated to the music "Riverdance by Bill Whelan", opened her free skating with a clean triple flip-triple toeloop. She did all the jumps neatly and spins and sequences smoothly to top the free skating with a season best 129.97 points.
China's Li Zijun was out of form and only ranked ninth.
Spanish world champion Javier Fernandez dominated the men's competition with 270.55, while China's 18-year-old Jin Boyang impressed the spectators with the difficult point of his program. Jin ranked second in 261.23, while Yan Han of China came third in 230.33.
In the Ice Dance, Italy's former world champion pair Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte won the title with 173.30. World silver medallists Madison Chock and Evan Bates of United States earned 169.16 to take second, while Russia's Elena Ilinykh and Ruslan Zhiganshin came third in 159.00.
The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Cup of China is running from Nov. 6 to 8. Skaters compete for points to qualify for the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final and a prize money of 180,000 U.S. dollars per individual event of the Grand Prix.
