NAGOYA, Japan (AP) — Yuma Kagiyama upstaged world champion Ilia Malinin of the United States to lead the men’s short program at the figure skating Grand Prix Final on Thursday.
Malinin hasn’t lost a competition in more than two years and is the gold medal favorite for the Milan Cortina Olympics but stepped out of his opening jump, a quadruple axel-triple toe loop combination, and finished third behind Kagiyama and his Japanese compatriot Shun Sato.
Malinin wasn’t fazed by the mistake on the quad axel, calling it an experiment that was something he likely wouldn’t attempt at the Olympics.
“I just wanted to try this combo out,” Malinin said. “It was the first time in a competition and it didn’t work out so I had to just continue with the program.”
Malinin also lost points on a quadruple lutz-triple toe loop combination and finished third with 94.05 points, more than 14 behind Kagiyama.
The American said he wasn’t worried about whether the shaky start to the Grand Prix Final might impact his confidence for the Olympics in February.
“I don’t think it’s really going to affect my confidence,” said Malinin, who has won the last two GP Finals. “This is just a place for me to try new things. I didn’t really come here to win a Grand Prix Final again, I’m mainly here to try new things and see if maybe I’ll have a different decision in what I want to do for the Olympics.”
Skating to Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish,” Kagiyama delivered an up-tempo routine that produced a season’s best score of 108.77.
The Japanese skater landed a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination, a quadruple salchow and a triple axel.
“I went in with the mindset that I am the best and it really helped,” Kagiyama said. “It felt like the Beijing Olympics (where he won the silver medal).”
Sato landed two quad jumps and a triple axel for 98.06 points.
The Grand Prix Final features the top six in each discipline — men, women, pairs, ice dance — and is the gathering of the world’s top skaters before the Winter Olympics.
In ice dance, Olympic gold medal favorites Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States were first after the rhythm dance with 88.74 points.
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France were second with 87.56, and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada third on 82.89.
Chock and Bates, the three-time reigning world champions, won a record-tying sixth ice dance title at Skate America in November. They also won the Cup of China. They won the Grand Prix Final in 2023 and 2024.
In the pairs, world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan scored 77.32 to lead the short program by one-tenth of a point over Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy. Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia were third.
Friday’s events include the pairs free skate and women’s short program which features Americans Alysa Liu, the world champion, and Amber Glenn, who won last year’s GP Final in Grenoble, France.
The competition ends on Saturday with the free skate for men and women.
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
By JIM ARMSTRONG
Associated Press
