Chinese duo wins pairs gold at Four Continents

The world's No.2-ranked pair beat Americans, Keauna McLaughlin, and Rockne Brubaker, while Canada's Meagan Duhamel and Craig Buntin finished third.

The Chinese pair will be aiming for gold at the Vancouver Olympics, having taken a silver medal at the previous Winter Games in Turin.

In the ice dance, Canadian duo, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, secured their lead with a seductive Spanish flamenco in the original dance segment.

“We had a really exciting year with this program because we traveled to Madrid to learn the choreography and learn the culture,” Weaver said. “We are proud of ourselves for learning the dance. It's something different.” Fellow Canadians, Allie Hann-McCurdy and Michael Coreno, were in second place in the original dance and overall with a comedic Italian tarantella, and will seek to grab the title today in the free dance.

Chinese pair, Huang Xintong and Zheng Xun, rounded out the top three in both the original dance segment and overall with a high score with their Greek folk dance. Weaver and Poje won despite Poje stumbling on the sequential twizzle step, which was “usually flawless” during practice.

“When it came to that, I was thinking a little too much and it became too much in my head,” he told reporters. “I didn't let my body go with the flow, and so I made that mistake.”

Hann-McCurdy and Coreno's Italian folk dance was a nod to Coreno's Italian heritage.

“We were really happy with our skate today. We've been training really hard. For us, our focus was to qualify for the next show, so we're really happy,” Hann-McCurdy said.

Coming in at fourth and fifth place yesterday were Americans Madison Hubbell and Keiffer Hubbell, and Madison Chock and Greg Zuerlein.

The Four Continents championship in Jeonju, south of Seoul, continued yesterday with the men's short program.

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