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| World champions Shen and Zhao highlight Skate China
BEIJING, Nov 5 (AFP) - Chinese pairs world champions Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao will get local pulses racing when they glide onto the ice in front of a home crowd here in the China Cup figure skating championships. The couple headline the third stop on the ISU figure skating Grand Prix that starts here on Thursday and will be eyeing victory with arch rivals Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin missing the event. BizVantage – Serious & personalized business, investment and technology intelligence for a serious advantage. Totmianina and Marinin, runners up in the world championships, upset the Chinese duo at the last Grand Prix in Mississauga, Canada. Chinese compatriots Pang Qing and Tong Jian who took the Skate America title last month in the first event on the ISU calendar will push them hard. The field is open in the men's competition with world champion and winner in Canada Yevgeni Plushenko not amongst the official entries, giving China's Li Chenjiang, who ranked fourth in the world championships, a great chance of victory on home turf. Double winner this year Sasha Cohen of the United States has also decided to skip the China leg, opening the door in the women's program to fellow American Amber Corwin and Russia's Viktoria Volchkova. Tatiana Navka, coached by her husband and former world dance champ Alexander Zhulin, and Roman Kostomarov of Russia will start favourites in the ice dancing, coming off their victory in Canada. mp/ppy/mfc/mo03 FSkate-CHN
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