Chinese pair win world skating title

CALGARY, Alberta — Winning a world title was even sweeter for China's Pang Qing and Tong Jian one month after barely missing the medals stand in the Olympics.

Ranked third in a nation where pairs are king, they soared past countrymen Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao to win the World Figure Skating Championships on Wednesday.

Olympic silver medalists Zhang and Zhang, best remembered for coming back from her horrific fall in the Turin free skate, were second, followed by Russia's Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov.

"I am so happy for how we skated," Tong said.

"I was very surprised we won because I made a mistake," Pang added of her fall on side-by-side triple toe loops.

"But only that mistake. The rest of the program, we performed all the other elements to our best."

So much so that they climbed past their countrymen, something they couldn't do in Turin, where Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo were third; Shen and Zhao are the only other Chinese world winners, taking the 2002 and 2003 crowns. Until now.

Absent from these worlds were Olympic gold medalists Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, and Shen and Zhao.

Stunningly, American champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin rallied from sixth to fourth with a brilliant free program that didn't even feature a clean throw triple axel, their trademark.

"We skate like that at home," Baldwin said. "They key part is to put it out in competition. Definitely to get programs out like that at the world championships was very important."

Canadian champion Joannie Rochette thrilled the crowd earlier Wednesday by winning her qualifying group with an elegant free skate that surpassed her performance at the Olympics.

In Turin, Rochette rallied from ninth to fifth. At worlds, she received a personal-best 117.12 points to edge Yukari Nakano of Japan and American Emily Hughes in Group B.

"The Olympics helped me a lot," said Rochette, the two-time Canadian champion who was just 11th at last year's worlds. "A lot of people didn't know me before and they know me now."

They know her as a contender for Canada's first women's gold at worlds since Karen Magnuson in 1973 and the first world medal since Liz Manley won silver in 1988.

Rochette can do the math, too. She knows that Olympic champion Shizuka Arakawa of Japan and bronze winner Irina Slutskaya of Russia are not in Calgary.