Shen and Zhao ease to fourth pairs' victory

Former world champions and Olympic medalists Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo excelled to win the figure skating pairs title for the fourth time in their probably last Asian Winter Games on Saturday.

The pair, dancing to the music of Meditation from Thais, collected 126.06 points for their free skate, winning the title in a total of 195.55.

Shen, 28, and Zhao, 34, once said they would temporarily leave the national team after two bronze medals from two Olympics in Salt Lake City and Turin as well as two golds in 2002 and 2003 world championships.

Last year's world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian made a little mistake and finished second in 181.47 with 115.82 from free skate.

Li Jiaqi and Xu Jiankun were ranked in third in 144.20 including 89.21 from tonight's free skate.

According to the OCA rules, the fourth placed Marina Aganina and Artyom Knyazev of Uzbekistan who had a total score of 126.20 will share the bronze medal with Li Jiaqi and Xu Jiankun.

Source: Xinhua