China

China's pair skaters win bronze in Figure Skating Worlds

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-04-29 17:03

Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China perform during the pairs free skating competition at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow April 28, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

MOSCOW - China's figure skating duo Pang Qing and Tong Jian failed to defend the championship in pair programs at Moscow Worlds on Thursday, bringing home the bronze medal.

The pair presented an almost perfect short program on Wednesday night. But in the free skating program Thursday night, their performance was not so "flawless". Tong Jian fell down when doing his first single-hop.

They finished with a total score of 204.12 points, ranking third behind Germany's Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy, scoring at 217.85, and Russia's Tatyana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov who got 210.73.

Tong blamed the failure on himself, saying that he might have been expecting too much.

"It's a pity. My first error in the single jump distracted me," Tong told reporters after the match. '   "This world championship bears kind of special meaning for me. I hoped I could achieve success and make this occasion memorable, but I lost the chance," he said.

The pair skaters, both 32-year old who have been teamed up for 18 years, announced their love to each other after they won silver medal at Vancouver Winter Olympics. Tong said before their Moscow journey that he would not rule out the possibility of proposing to his partner at the ice arena if they could win good results.