As the music of Romeo and Juliet echoed throughout the ice rink,
China's figure skating pair Pang Qing and Tong Jian acted out their
own moving love story on the ice below.
China's Pang Qing (L) and
Tong Jian compete during the pairs figure skating event at the
sixth Asian Winter Games in Changchun, northeastern China's Jilin
Province, February 3, 2007.
With their newly choreographed free-skating routine, Pang and
Tong, the 2006 world champion pair, are expecting a glorious new
season.
"We want to show something new to the spectators this time,"
said Tong of their new free skating routine, which was
choreographed in the U.S. "Although we still use the same routine
for the short program as we did last season, we changed some of the
details to meet the needs of the new rules."
According to Tong, they have added some new linking footwork to
some of the transitions of their new free skating routine, raising
the overall difficulty level considerably.
"We need to almost turn around in every transition. Even I
thought it would be impossible during the choreographing period,"
said Tong. "But our choreographer told us that we are capable
enough to do it, and now we know that we can."
Through their passionate performances and exquisite
interpretation of the music, Pang and Tong physically narrate the
classic tragedy to the audience. Although the music has been used
in many figure skating routines, they expect to give it their own
flavor.
"We don't want to finish the routine by just completing the
technical elements. We want to tell a real story," said Tong. "We
want to feel the characters with our hearts and display the routine
with our own characteristics."
Since they teamed up in 1993, Pang and Tong have always been
considered the No. 2 pairs skaters in China, always in the shadow
of multiple world champions and two-time Olympic bronze medalists
Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo.
?Making quiet progress, the pair jumped into fifth place at
the 2002 World Championships, only two years after their
international debut.
They claimed the bronze medal at the 2004 World Championships,
and just narrowly missed the podium at the 2006 Turin Winter
Olympics, settling for fourth place.
One month later, they finally stepped atop the highest podium at
the World Championships. Unfortunately they got bogged down with
bouts of illness and injury in the 2006-07 season.
After Pang developed a nephritic disease, the pair was forced to
miss almost the entire season. Coupled with the stitches Tong
received on his forehead following a car accident, the pair was
left with little time to train systematically for the Asiad and
World Championships, held at the beginning of the year.
They settled for two silvers at the Asiad and 2007 World
Championships, but they are expecting to regain their form and
reach the top of the podium again as the season gets underway.
"Although we haven't reached our best form at present, we will
try to do well with the new routine in the Grand Prix series and
World Championships this season," Tong told China Daily. "The new
season will be exciting. It should be a glorious season for
us."
With Shen/Zhao withdrawing from the competitions after being
crowned world champions for the third time in March, this may be
the first season for the 28-year-olds Pang/Tong to take over the
torch.
"Without Shen/Zhao, we seemed to lose the goal we are chasing,"
Tong said.
"But we want to show ourselves right now. It's not that they've
been unbeatable. We just haven't found the right way to show our
own characteristics. We hope our changes this season will sparkle
the audience."
After Pang's unexpected cold spoiled the pair's season-opening
competition at the 2007 Figure Skating National Championships last
week, they finished runners-up to their Chinese teammates Zhang Dan
and Zhang Hao. Having caught a cold on the first day of the
competition, Pang struggled to finish their free skating routine,
which required lots of strength.
After the competition, Tong admitted that they were not ready
for those unexpected accidents. But he said that ordeal gained them
valuable experience.
"We are still not that skilled at our new routine and the
national competition is a good test," said Tong. "But we have
learned our lesson from that. We still did our best, although we
were in very bad condition."
From October 25 to 28, Pang/Tong will start this season's
international competition in Reading in the US, for the first stop
of the ISU Figure Skating Grand Prix.
(China Daily October 16, 2007)
