Much to the disappointment of the millions of Chinese fans, world figure skating pairs champions Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo will not be defending their title at the Samsung Anycall ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2005 in Beijing in November.

Zhao snapped his Achilles tendon during a practice session in August, and had a surgery in Beijing on August 9, 2005.

Zhao's old injury recurred while he was doing a triple-triple jump during the altitude training in South China's Yunnan Province.

The recovery was better than expected, said Zhao yesterday at the press conference for the Cup of China.

"I can do some light training on my feet, but taking part in the Turin Winter Olympic Games is still a doubt," said Zhao, who with Shen Xue, won the titles of the 2002 and 2003 World Championships and the 2004 Grand Prix Finals.

China is still strong in the pairs competition in the November 3-6 event at the Beijing Capital Gymnasium, fielding Pang Qing and Tong Jian, the 2003 Skate America pairs winners and 2004 ISU Grand Prix Finals third-place finishers.

But the young Chinese duo will be hard pushed to beat off experienced world champions Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov of Russia and Dorota Zagorska and Mariusz Siudek of Poland.

The women's singles field will be the strongest for the Beijing stop of the ISU Grand Prix series.

Last year's ISU Grand Prix finals women's singles winner and reigning world champion Irina Slutskaya of Russia and last year's World Championships gold medallist Shizuka Arakawa of Japan both have confirmed their participation.

The United States Figure Skating Association has also registered for Michelle Kwan, runner-up in the ladies singles of the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics and seven-time US champion.

Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel, this year's World Figure Skating Championships men's singles winner will lead the men's pool. Emanuel Sandhu of Canada, 2004 Skate Canada winner and China's Li Chengjiang, the first Chinese man to win an ISU Championship (Four Continents 2001), will also strive for gold.

In ice dancing, this year's World Figure Skating Championship ice dancing winners Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia; Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski from Israel, the first Israeli skaters to win a medal at the World Championships (bronze in 2002) will be competing for honours.

Source: China Daily