MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are on the verge of their third straight pairs title at the junior world figure skating championships after topping Chinese teammates Yu Xiaoyu and Jin Yang in the short program while Russians swept the short dance.
Sui and Han, who won their first senior title earlier this month at Four Continents, scored 59.29 points for their country music program. That puts them almost five points ahead of Yu and Jin, gold medalists at the Youth Olympic Games, going into Thursday’s free skate. Ekaterina Petaikina and Maxim Kurdyukov of Russia were third, edging U.S. junior champs Haven Denney and Brandon Frazier by less than .40 points.
Victoria Sinitsina and Ruslan Zhiganshin led a Russian sweep in the short dance, scoring a season’s best 63.78 points.
