Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava of Georgia took the lead as the Pairs lit up the ice at the Bloomage Live Yudong Arena with their Short Program performances at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of China Friday. It was a “Spanish night” in Chongqing with the top three teams skating to Spanish-inspired music.

Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) on fire in the Short Program 

2024 ISU Grand Prix Final bronze medalists Metelkina/Berulava were on fire in the Short Program, skating into the lead ahead of defending Cup of China Champions Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii of Italy. All eyes were also on China’s 2022 Olympic Pair Skating Champions Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN) who started their comeback by finishing third on the first day of competition. 

Metelkina/Berulava looked sharp in their performance to “Bolero”, drawing applause for their unusual opening position featuring Metelkina in a headstand. The 2025 ISU European bronze medalists nailed a triple Salchow, triple twist, throw triple flip and earned a level four for their twist, step sequence, spin and death spiral. The two-time ISU World Junior Champions posted a personal best score with 77.77 points. 

“We are happy to have skated a clean Short Program for the third time this season,” Metelkina said. “We’ll continue to work and we’ll get ready for tomorrow.” 

Berulava wanted to skate to the “Bolero”, Metelkina revealed. “For us, it is really important go get into character,” she explained. “Our program sets itself apart by the sharpness and crispness of positions. We really focused on our lines when doing the choreography and it has been working well as this program has been scoring well.”

Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (GEO) finished top of the leaderboard with a personal best score in the Pairs Short Program at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of China in Chongqing © ISU

2025 World bronze medalists Conti/Macii turned in a strong performance to “The Wild Bull” and “Concerto de Espana” that featured a triple twist, side-by-side triple Salchow and difficult lift. Conti only touched down with her hand on the throw triple loop. 

“We felt the tension, this is not like the other competitions,” Conti noted. “We are happy to be here. It was not our best Short Program but we are really proud of each other and we’ll see tomorrow.” 

“I am honored to share this table with the legends (Sui/Han) that just came back,” Macii added. 

Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii (ITA) finished second in the Pairs Short Program at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of China in Chongqing © ISU

Sui/Han had to skate first as they had not competed since the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and no held longer world ranking points. Sui missed the opening triple toeloop but the Olympic Champions recovered to produce a triple twist and throw triple Lutz. The two-time ISU World Champions earned 72.45 points for their crisp Flamenco program to “Habanera”. 

“I was very happy to come back to competing,” Sui said. “I want to enjoy that moment, each minute on the ice and welcome everyone, all international skaters to come to China.

“Figure skating is a good vehicle to show a lot of different cultures from all over the world,” she continued, referring to their music choice. “We chose the Flamenco for the Short Program and we have traditional Chinese music in the Free Skating.”

“There are a lot of reasons for us to come back,” Han commented. “We feel a lot of love and support from the audience, from the fans and we want to say thank you also to the Chinese national team.”

Olympic Champions Wenjing Sui and Cong Han (CHN) finished third in the Pairs Short Program at the ISU Grand Prix Cup of China in Chongqing © ISU

Katie McBeath/Daniil Parkman (USA) placed fourth with a personal best score of 69.18 points followed by 2024 ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champions Jiaxuan Zhang/Yihang Huang (CHN) who recorded a personal best as well with 68.96 points. 

ISU Grand Prix Cup of China schedule:

Friday, October 24: Rhythm Dance, Women’s, Men’s & Pairs Short Programs
 Saturday, October 25: Free Dance, Women’s, Men’s & Pairs Free Skating
 Sunday, October 26: Exhibition Gala

ISU Grand Prix Standings

Check out who is on their way to qualify for the ISU Grand Prix Final:

Men                               Women                    Pairs                      Ice Dance

For full entry lists and further information regarding the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series please visit here.

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