Pang and Tong Win Second Four Continents Pairs Title
by Sal Zanca, Special to U.S. Figure Skating Online |
| Qing Pang and Jian Tong won their second Four Continents pairs title Saturday afternoon. Photo by Michelle Harvath |
(1/24/04) — There was no change from first through the 10th position in the pairs competition at the Four Continents Championships Saturday afternoon. China's Qing Pang and Jian Tong, and Dan and Hao Zhang took the top two spots while U.S. champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin (Santa Monica, Calif.) just missed a medal and finished fourth overall.
Pang and Tong regained the title they won in 2002 in the absence of World champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao. With Shen and Zhao missing this year as well Pang and Tong were again victorious. Third went to Canadian champions Valerie Marcoux and Craig Buntin.
Americans Katie Orscher (Glastonbury, Conn.) and Garrett Lucash (Granby, Conn.) were seventh, and Tiffany Scott (Hanson, Mass.) and Philip Dulebohn (Germantown, Md.) were eighth. Scott and Dulebohn, who skated first in the event, had a relatively clean program.
It felt good, Scott said. We went into the performance with nothing to lose.
Definitely better than nationals, Dulebohn said. We were more into it.
Scott and Dulebohn had a tight scoring range; all but one of their marks were either 5.0 or 5.1.Orscher and Lucash collected marks ranging from 4.6 to 5.4. The U.S. silver medalists had a good high triple twist early, but she fell on the throw triple Salchow. She appeared to land it then lost the edge.
But I got up again very quickly, Orscher said.
She's never missed that throw before so we were both surprised, and we don't know what happened, Lucash said.
Inoue and Baldwin had marks from 5.0 to 5.6. She singled an Axel and fell on the throw triple Salchow. Baldwin was nevertheless happy with the performance.
It was a great step up after the mistakes at nationals, Baldwin said. The throw triple Salchow got big and hard to hold. I don't know many partners who get up and carry on like Rena did.
Meanwhile, the Chinese couples were impressive, not missing a single throw or triple jump in their routines.
Pang and Tong's program to Variations on a Theme of Paganini was lyrical, and their throws were huge, earning them marks ranging from 5.5-5.8 for technical merit and 5.5-5.9 for presentation. Tong suffered an injury in the morning practice when he collided with Dan Zhang and hurt his leg.
I felt pain but we were the first ones to skate in the group, and I feel if there's a will there's a way, Tong said. So I overcame the pain to skate well.
However, Dan and Hao Zhang managed to take three first-place ordinals from them with equally big tosses and individual triple Salchows to go along with triple toes, making them the only couple to do two triple jumps. The technical marks were superb including six 5.8s and a 5.9.
Marcoux and Buntin were third but admitted they considered quitting last year after moving their training base to Montreal.
We had to uproot, Buntin said. It was a real low as far as our technical skating with the throws and the jumps. We had trouble skating together and it was a rough time for us.
But they turned around with the support of the team around them.
Rather than change everything in one day they let us be ourselves, and in doing that we found out who we were and who we wanted to be on the ice and blossomed from there, he said.
The other Canadians, Anabelle Langlois and Patrice Archetto and Elizabeth Putnam and Sean Wirtz, were fifth and ninth respectively.
Sixth-place finishers Ding Yang and Ren Zhongfei of China almost completed a throw quadruple toe loop. She slightly landed on two feet before lifting up one foot. They have been flirting with that since the 2000 World Junior Championships.
