Figure skating chief boosted by China's first men's medal in ISU GP
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Xinhua, November 6, 2011
A senior official of China welcame male figure skater Song Nan's third-place finish at the Cup of China Grand Prix here on Saturday.
"The bronze medal means a lot both to Song Nan himself and the country's future in the sport," said Ren Hongguo, deputy director of China's winter sports administrative center.
As the only men's singles skater having completed a perfect quad jump with few flaws in following planned elements of the routine, Song Nan, who just stepped onto the world's senior stage in 2010, got a very high free skating score of 154.03 points and jumped to the third place on 226.75.
The 21-year-old, only finishing a distant fifth after Friday's short program, thus became the first Chinese winning a medal in an ISU Grand Prix since 2004 when the now-retired Li Chengjiang earned a bronze at the season-ending Grand Prix Final.
American Olympian Jeremy Abbott lifted the men's title though falling to the rink while doing his opening quad toeloop in free skating, piling 149.17 points to a total score of 228.49, while Japan's Nobunari Oda also fought back from a dissapointing short program to settle for a silver with a narrow decifit of 1.38 points in total.
"Song finished on top of the men's singles free skating standings since he performed a very difficult, world-class routine," commented Ren. "His shortcoming is on the performance, which could be much improved if he got a better arrangement tutor. With the Grand Prix medal, it will become easier for us to invite an elite to help him on that."
"In my opinion, Song has the ability of making the top ten in the world," he added.
