TURIN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese figure skaters displayed good form on Friday at the ISU Italian Grand Prix, as two-time world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong led one-two Chinese finish in the pairs short program, while two-time world bronze medalist Jin Boyang topped the men's short program.

Meanwhile in ice dance, France's four-time world champion Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, who were absent from any formal competition for over 22 months, sent out a strong warning to their rivals with a clean performance in the rhythm dance to take the lead.

Sui/Han arrived in Turin with a dominant victory in Canada, where they beat second-placed pair Daria Pavliuchenko and Denis Khodykin of Russia by 31 points. Here in the Palavela venue, the 2018 Olympic silver medalists delivered a side by side triple toe loop, triple twist and throw triple flip in a Flamenco-themed program, which earned them 80.07 points to top the pairs short program.

"It was the third competition we had in just one month. To tell the truth, we were a little bit tired. But we also knew it was a challenge for us," said Sui. "After the victory in Canada, we are becoming more and more confident, and we can feel that our form is getting better and better."

Another Chinese pair Peng Cheng and Jin Yang, skating to "Piano and I: Moonlight Sonata" and "No one" by Alicia Keys, hit their personal best with 76.71 to finish the second.

Home favorites Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise both fell on their side by side triple Salchow but recovered to land a triple twist and throw triple loop to score 65.12 and rank the third in the segment.

Men's title favorite Yuma Kagiyama of Japan made errors on two jumps as the current world silver medalist only collected 80.53 to finish seventh in the short program.

However, it was a night for Chinese skater Jin, who hit a quad Lutz-triple toe, quad toe and triple Axel in his routine to "Night Fight" from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to sweep 97.89 points, leading Italian local skater Daniel Grassl by 2.22 to take the pole position.

"During these two weeks in Italy, I didn't get intense training but mainly focused on refreshing my body. My mental condition has improved a lot in the two weeks, this is why I can perform well today," said the 24-year-old Jin.

Skating to "Fate of the Clock maker" and "Cloak and Dagger", South Korea's Cha Junhwan won third place with only 0.11 points off Grassl.

In the women's competition, Loena Hendrickx of Belgium celebrated her 22nd birthday by winning the short program with a personal best of 73.52 points.

"It felt strange, a bit more pressure than normal, I wanted to skate clean and enjoy my day. I am very surprised with the result," the Belgian Champion said. "I knew I was ready for the short program. I felt confident and I couldn't have made myself a better present for my birthday."

Russia's newcomer Maiia Khromykh came second with 72.04 points, only 0.31 ahead of her teammate, 2021 worlds champion Anna Shcherbakova.

Papadakis/Cizeron hadn't skated in any official event since last January's European Championships, but they proved to remain the biggest title contenders in ice dance for next year's Olympic Games in Beijing. The French pair brought a waacking street-style dance to "Made to Love" and "U move, I move" by John Legend, reaping 87.45 points to set a season-best in the rhythm dance segment.

"We changed the second music of the program and the choreography a bit as well. We worked with our choreographer to make something new," Papadakis said. "I think it was very clean and we had a lot of fun working on that. it was a big improvement."

The silver medalists of the 2021 World Championships Madison Hubbell/Zachary Donohue of the United States scored 84.79 to finish the second, while Russian duo Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin ranked third with 81.47. Chinese Wang Shiyue/Liu Xinyu were in fifth place with 73.28. Enditem

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