Emotional victory for Savchenko and Massot

Pyeongchang, February 16: Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany won many hearts after their comeback win in the pairs figure skating competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Savchenko and Massot started the day in fourth place after the short program, but the world silver medalists fell to the ice hugging after an enthralling free skate worth 159.31 points saw them snatch the gold with 235.90.

It was an emotional moment for the Ukrainian-born Savchenko, now 34 - and for her partner, French-born Massot, who helped lift her to that long-elusive prize at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

She had previously won bronze at the Games while Savchenko also had won two previous bronze medals in 2010 and 2014.

China's Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, who led the field after the short program took silver while two-time world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada won the bronze with 230.15.

Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert of the Olympic Athletes of Russia impressed en route to a seventh-place finish.

With three medals, Savchenko is now the joint holder of Winter Olympics pairs skating record.

"Today I wrote history," Savchenko said. "This is what counts. It's my moment. We celebrated new year together and said 2018 will be our year and it became our year."

Massot added: "I got the gold medal in my head. Yesterday I said I don't want her to come back with another bronze medal. She deserved this gold medal."

The duo broke into an emotional celebration after the win.

Watching Aljona Savchenko's reaction, of Savchenko & Massot, after being awarded a #Gold after 20 years of trying lets you know that no one should ever ask an athlete, "Is it worth it". #OLYMPICS pic.twitter.com/5AAPajXi9K

— Truth Reigns (@frreigns) February 15, 2018

And the reasons were obvious too.

They had teamed up in 2014, both with prior experience with other partners and plenty of wins under their belts.

Massot still needed to get permission from his native France to represent Germany, which he ultimately received in 2015; Savchenko had passed her citizenship test years before.

"You need trust in the pair, trust is everything in pairs skating," Savchenko said of her partnership.

"Everything takes a lot of time with a new pair, but we were really lucky. It was amazing we had a feeling that we had been skating our whole life together."

(With Agency inputs).