Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo have become the first couple in the world to win two big figure skating prizes in one year. The magazine 'International figure skating' awarded them the Best Double Performance Prize and the Best Action Layout Prize. Their coach Yao Bing won Best Coach of the Year.

So the finals in Beijing start in Beijing next week on 16 December at the Capital Gymnasium.

Thanks to their perfect routine to Kitaro's "The Soong Sisters", Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won two prizes announced by American magazine "International Figure Skating".

This beautifully choreographed routine also helped them win the Canada, China and Paris legs' of the ISU Grand Prix figure skating grand prix.

Shen and Zhao would continue to rely on the routine and were looking forward to even better results in Turin in 2006 at the winter Olympics.

Coach Yao Bing well deserved his the Best Coach of the year prize, after coaching top local pairs to success. Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, Pang Qing and Tong Jian, and Zhang Dan and Zhao Hao, have all won through to the ISU Grand Prix figure skating finals.

In other skating news, American Johnnie Weir, top ranked in the men's singles event, has withdrawn from the 2004 I-S-U Figure Skating grand prix final which debuts in the Chinese capital next week. His absence leaves the door open for Russia's three-time world champion Evgeni Plushenko. China's Zhang Min will also be absent, after he failed to make the grade in the men's singles line-up.

 
Editor: Wing