Chinese skating duo, Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, used a technically difficult freestyle routine to beat Americans Rena Inoue and John Baldwin Jr. in Atlantic City last Saturday night to grab the pairs gold medal at Skate America, the first tournament in the International Skating Union's figure skating Grand Prix series.

Zhang and Zhang, ranked third in the world, included several dynamic throws and lifts to earn an overwhelming 65.08 technical points and 119.24 overall in the free skate.

They finished with 179.14 points, nearly 15 points ahead of Inoue and Baldwin, the 2004 US champs. Russia's Julia Obertas and Sergei Slavnov came in third.

Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, the first US dance team with a realistic shot at an Olympic medal in more than two decades, won the ice dance title with a flashy flamenco.

Belbin is a Canadian native in the process of applying for US citizenship. Tournament rules state that pairs skaters must be US citizens.

The couple now has six weeks to work on the citizenship issue and on their programs before their next Grand Prix event, the NHK Trophy in Japan.

The world silver medalists earned 190.45 points to out-skate France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder, who scored 184.47. Third were Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin with 169.23.

Russia's Elena Sokolova, skating a clean but somewhat lackluster free skate, had little trouble beating a second-level field in the women's event with a total of 163.02 points.

Coming off two disappointing seasons after finishing second in the world in 2003, Sokolova never struggled at Skate America, but lacked the pizazz of American Alissa Czisny, who won the long program.

Czisny was third in the short program and couldn't catch Sokolova despite a personal best free skate, with a finishing score of 159.30. Japan's Yoshie Onda finished third with 150.98.

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2005)