Ice-skating comp to fine-tune Olympic stars

As for the popularity of winter sports grows in China with the approaching 2022 Winter Olympics, the Beijing leg of an international figure skating series is expected to further promote the sport while inspiring public participation.

The 2016 Audi Cup of China, the fifth stop of the six-event International Skating Union's Grand Prix of Figure Skating, will be held at Beijing's Capital Gymnasium from November 18-20 with about 200 athletes from 11 countries competing for spots in the series' year-end final in France in December, organizers said on Tuesday.

It will be the 14th consecutive year that China hosts a leg of the prestigious series since 2003 and the eighth time Beijing has hosted the event. Other Chinese host cities include Shanghai, Nanjing in Jiangsu province, and Herbin in Heilongjiang province.

"As Beijing aims to promote winter sports among 300 million Chinese leading up to the 2022 Winter Olympics, hosting the event every year will attract more attention to the sport among the general public and is contributing to the realization of the ambition," said Ren Hongguo, head of the China's Winter Sports Administrative Center.

As a strong force in figure skating, China expects to hone its young talent through competition against the world's best at the marquee event, in preparation for the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

"The field is really strong with top skaters from all over the world gathering in Beijing to present their best routines. Our roster is relatively young but with great potential. We hope they could gain big-time experience and improve their routine presenting ability for the Olympics at this event," said Tang Yehong, leader of China's national figure staking team, on Tuesday.

China's competitors include men's singles skater Jin Boyang, the country's first World Championship bronze medalist in the discipline, four-time Chinese national champion Li Zijun in the ladies singles and re-matched pairs Yu Xiaoyu/Zhang Hao, as well as Peng Cheng/Jin Yang are expected to deliver top-level performances.

"As long as I can present my routines and training abilities to the utmost, I am confident about the results because I really improved my connections between jumps and artistic expression during overseas training in Canada earlier this year," said the 19-year-old Jin, who won a silver medal at last year's Beijing leg in his senior international debut.

As a traditional world power in pair skating, China recently decided to regroup its two leading pairs by making them switch partners with each other, aiming to build better chemistry.

Zhang, who previously competed with Peng, now has been practicing with Yu, the former partner of Jin, as both pairs prepare for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang , South Korea under national coach and former Olympic gold medalist pair skater Zhao Hongbo.

"The Beijing event will be the first international competition after the two pairs' recombination. It will be a great assessment for us," said Zhao, who won the gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics with his partner and wife Shen Xue.

However, China's homegrown skaters will face touch challenges from international stars including Canada's three-time world champion Patrick Chan in men's singles, 2015 ladies' singles world champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia and the Beijing meet's defending champion in pairs Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia.

The best six ranked athletes in men, ladies and pairs as well as ice dance based on their accumulative points after the six stops will qualify for the series Final in Marseille from December 8 to 11.