Homing in on Olympic glory

Sui and Han heaped praise on the 53-year-old venue's new look and smooth rink－prepared by experienced French technician Remy Boehler－and hope to make the most of home advantage next year.

"We feel at home skating here," said Han, 29, who also hails from Heilongjiang province. "It will keep driving us to make progress and challenge ourselves. This is a truly exquisite venue. It shows how much effort our country has invested into being the Olympic host."

"We share the same goal, which is to watch the Chinese national flag fly and hear the Chinese national anthem play at the Winter Olympics," added Sui.

Now both back to full fitness after battling a series of injuries over the past five years, Sui and Han have set their sights on raising the level of their routine difficulty and improving their execution throughout the remainder of the ISU Grand Prix series in a bid to hit peak form by the time the Games open on Feb 4.

In the men's singles, China's Jin Boyang claimed a bronze medal despite not being at full strength as he recovers from a recent appendicitis operation.

Ice dance couple Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu won gold to get their season off to a flying start.

"To compete at the Olympic test event was a very helpful experience for us, even more important than the world championships," said Jin, China's only qualified entry in men's singles for Beijing 2022.

"We got to gauge our current level while further familiarizing ourselves with this venue to get a feeling for the Games."

Zhao Hongbo, head coach of the Chinese figure skating team, declared himself satisfied with the performances.

"More or less everybody was a little bit nervous and perhaps too excited. It's something totally expected for the beginning of the season," Zhao, who won China's first figure skating Olympic title in pairs with his wife Shen Xue at Vancouver 2010, said on Saturday.