China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong beat slightly flawed Canadian and Russian gold medalist pairs in the World Championships short program in Boston.
Sui and Han, silver medalists at last year’s Worlds, landed side-by-side triple toe loops and a throw triple flip en route to 80.85 points, ranking them first on Friday and the No. 2 pair all-time under a 12-year-old scoring system.
The Chinese take a 2.67-point lead into the free skate Saturday (NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra, 2 p.m. ET), seeking their first World title.
Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, the defending World champs, totaled 78.