Russian Sinitsina, Katsalapov win ice dance at Cup of China

World silver medalists Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia claimed the ice dance title at the ISU figure skating Grand Prix Cup of China after a second-placed free dance here on Saturday.

Dancing to "I Giorni, Songs My Mother Taught Me", the rhythm dance leaders, who led into the free dance with a five-point advantage, conducted level-four performance in synchronized twizzles, straight line lift, curve lift, rotational lift and combination spin to earn 124.52 and 209.90 overall.

American pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates, the 2019 Four Continents champions, came on top of the free dance rankings with a score of 128.21, but failed to overtake the eventual top-place from the Russian duo, trailing by 1.35 points.

Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen of Canada settled for another bronze medal following their third-place finish at the season-opening Skate America, scoring 112.33 points for free skate to pile up the total score at 190.74.

Local favorites Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu again entertained the home crowd with their Black Swan routine, earning 111.68 in free dance and finishing fourth overall on 186.45.

2018 Four Continents champions Kaitlin Hawayek and Jean-Luc Baker of the United States were fifth on 179.96, while the other two Chinese ice dance pairs Chen Hong/Sun Zhuoming and Guo Yuzhu/Zhao Penguin finished eighth and ninth respectively in 10 pairs of ice dances.

A total of 60 skaters and couples representing 11 ISU members participated in the Cup of China slated on November 8-10, the fourth stop of this season's Grand Prix Series in approaching to the year-end Final in Turin, Italy on December 5-8.