Chinese pair Han Cong/Sui Wenjing said they are targeting the podium during the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games after winning the pairs gold medal in the 2021 CS Asian Open Figure Skating Trophy at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Friday.

The event is the fifth of the nine-stop 2021–22 ISU Challenger Series and an official test event for figure skating competitions for next year's Winter Olympics.

Sui said they performed as they did in practice, though the two brought down the level of difficulty a bit. "I think we can do a better job of mastering the pace next time. Neither one of us made the best performance. We completed all of the moves but we both made errors in details. We will learn our lesson and try to improve," said Sui.

Han said he "smelled" something familiar at the Capital Indoor Stadium, which will also be a venue for the 2022 Winter Olympic competitions. "We used to compete here," said Han. "It will keep driving us to make progress and challenge ourselves. This is a truly fancy venue. It shows how much effort our country has invested to be the host."

"We share the same goal, which is to watch the Chinese national flag fly and Chinese national anthem [play] at the Winter Olympics," said Sui. She added that they will focus on raising the level of difficulty of their techniques and improving their mastery of the moves. "We want to show the best of ourselves in every match we attend. We hope more people will come to the ice rink after watching our performance," said Sui.

Han echoed his partner's views of what's yet to come and expressed confidence in what the duo can bring to the table. "We have a rich reserve for the level of difficulty and we will show it in future competitions."

German figure skater Nicole Schott who attended the last edition of Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018, was impressed with the test event and the management by the organizing committee.

"As the test event for the Olympics, it's a well-organized competition. All the volunteers know what to do for the competition, and there are thousands of people around. In general, it's pretty good already," said Scott.

(CGTN Sports contributed to the story.)