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World championship runners-up Sui/Han lead short program in National Winter Games

Xinhua, January 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ning Qin underlined her status as China's best female freestyle moguls athlete as she successfully defended her title at the National Winter Games here on Wednesday.

Ning, who represents Changchun city in the quadrennially-held event, scored 69.87 points in the final. Her teammate Li Nan took silver with 65.74 points, while Zhang Tingting gained 53.47 points for the bronze medal.

It was the second straight National Games title for the 23-year-old Ning, the first Chinese freestyle skier who made it to the moguls final at Winter Olympics.

"Thanks to these Games as winning the gold medal has helped me regain confidence," said Ning.

"I will be more optimistic about my prospect at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018."

Ning suffered a wrist fracture in her build-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics. She underwent two operations after the Sochi Games and then was sidelined for about a year.

"I felt very depressed for a moment," Ning recalled.

"But, fortunately, our national team coach, Scott Rawles, gave me a lot of advice and helped me out of the difficult time."

Rawles, formerly the coach of Sochi Olympics gold medalist Hannah Kearney, started to take over the Chinese team after the Sochi Games.

In figure skating, world championship runners-up Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who represents Harbin, earned 82.54 points to lead the short program of the pairs competition.

In men's ice hockey, five-time champions Harbin beat Hulunbeier 7-0 to set up a semifinal clash against Jiamusi, who eliminated hosts Urumqi 4-3. Qiqihar face Chengde in the other semifinal match.

Wang Bingyu, the former captain of China's national women's curling team, returned to the ice for the first time since 2014 when she led Harbin to a 7-2 victory over Baishan on Wednesday.

"Our teamwork is okay today," said Wang, who got married in 2013 and gave birth to a baby the following year.

Eight gold medals are up for grabs in figure skating, biathlon, moguls and snowboarding on Thursday.

The 13th National Winter Games will run through Jan. 30. For the first time since the winter sports gala was introduced in 1959 the games have been held outside the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin, where the frigid climate means winter sports have traditionally enjoyed huge popularity. Endit