Mainland pair break figure skating world record

Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China shattered their own world record for a short programme at the Beijing Games on Friday night, giving them the narrowest of leads over Russian rivals Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov heading into the free skate to decide the gold medals.

Sui and Han, who won the short programme at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games before settling for the silver medal, scored 84.41 points to their orchestral suite from the film “Mission: Impossible 2.” That topped the record of 82.83 points that they set during the short programme of the team competition earlier this month.

Tarasova and Morozov, who are coached in part by the controversial Eteri Tutberidze, also would have broken the record with their short programme. Instead, the fourth-place finishers in Pyeongchang were 16-hundredths of a point behind. (AP)