HARBIN, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Japan's national champion Utana Yoshida and Masaya Morita claimed the gold medal in ice dance, while Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitriy Chigirev triumphed in pair skating at the Asian Winter Games on Wednesday.

China's Ren Junfei and Xing Jianing delivered a clean free dance, scoring 106.96 points, more than 10 points higher than their previous best. However, their total score was not enough to surpass Yoshida and Morita, who took up the top spot with 173.31 points in total. The bronze went to another Japanese pair of Azusa Tanaka and Shingo Nishiyama.

"The gold medal has really boosted our confidence, but still we have room for improvement. Our footwork sequence needs to be sharper with stronger movements. We'll keep practicing and, hopefully, we can have better performance at the World Figure Skating Championships," said Yoshida.

Despite finishing just 2.06 points behind the champions, Ren and Xing remained upbeat. "We've already shown our best and I believe that we'll skate better in the future," Ren noted.

Their coach Zheng Xun praised their performance, noting their rapid progress since teaming up just ten months ago. "They've improved a lot and performed at about 90 percent of their training level."

In pair skating, Geynish and Chigirev claimed the gold with 176.43 points. Ryom Tae-ok and Han Kum-chol of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea edged out the Japanese pair of Yuna Nagaoka and Sumitada Moriguchi to bag the silver medal.

Also on Wednesday, Beijing Winter Olympics bronze medalist Kaori Sakamoto claimed 75.03 points to lead the women's short program. Kim Chae-yeon of South Korea and Japanese skater Hana Yoshida came in second and third respectively.

China's An Xiangyi ranked fifth in women's short program with 62.96 points, followed by her fellow Zhu Yi, who set her personal best with 62.90 points.

"I'm quite satisfied with my first combo of two triple Toeloops. When I practiced it several days ago, my axis was a bit off, so I'm really happy that I can make it today. There was no obvious flaw in my spinning, and I was enjoying my footwork sequence more," said Zhu. Enditem

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