Sui/Han ranked 2nd in short program at 2019 World Figure Skating Championships

SAITAMA, Japan - Chinese figure skating Olympic runners-up Sui Wenjing/Han Cong took second place in the pairs short program at the 2019 ISU World Championships in Saitama, Japan on Wednesday.

Sui/Han danced to "No One Like You" by Red Electrick, and performed a clean program with a perfect triple toeloop, a triple twist, and a throw triple flip. They scored 79.24 points, 1.97 points less than leaders Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov of Russia. Fellow Chinese pair Peng Cheng/Jin Yang ranked third with 75.51.

"I am not totally recovered from my injury," said Sui, who fell in a training on February and had to rest for ten days. "But we performed our best. Our team gave us lots of encouragement."

The pair had been struggling for form a week before they came to Japan.

"We felt bad at home, but when we came here and took to the ice, we felt better and better," said Sui. "We want to fight."

After taking the Olympic silver medal, Sui/Han had not competed in the first half of the season, but bounced back by taking gold at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships last month.