Hanyu charms crowd, leads short program
Print Edition
OLYMPIC men’s champion Yuzuru Hanyu skated at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center yesterday as though he was performing in front of the home fans, shrugging off a fall while landing on his first quadruple toeloop to sit atop the standing after the men’s short program at the 2015 ISU world figure skating championships.
Hanyu, who was the second last skater, scored a season best 95.20 points despite touching the ice on his first landing but he was flawless for the rest of his routine. The 20-year-old Japanese heartthrob so enamored the crowd that the rink girls needed nearly three minutes to clear the ice of teddy bears and toys thrown by fans before the last skater, Russia’s Maxim Kovtun, could perform.
“I made an error on the quad toeloop. Actually I have not been doing well this whole season. But my physical condition is nothing to worry about,” Hanyu said. “It wasn’t a perfect performance, but I could gain extra points on other elements, which was good. For free skating, I will put everything that I have.”
Hanyu underwent surgery for a bladder problem earlier this year. He then twisted his ankle and only started regular training earlier this month. “I will try to train without pushing my body too much in the future,” he added.
European champion Javier Fernandez of Spain was second with 92.74 points followed by Denis Ten of Kazakhstan at 85.89 points. Frenchman Florent Amodio led the short program for a while before China’s Yan Han entered the rink in the 19th order.
Yan managed 84.45 to finish fifth before today’s free skate program.
“I made some little mistakes,” Yan said. “The judges are very strict on every element, so I must keep every move at a high standard. The audience encouraged me a lot. I want to make a breakthrough and challenge myself in free skating.”
Another Chinese skater Song Nan could only manage 26th out of 30 on 61.69 points and did not qualify for today’s free skate.
In the morning session, French duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron upset their American rivals Madison Chock and Evan Bates, fighting back from a fourth place to clinch the gold medal in ice dancing. “It’s like a dream, we cried when the scores came up and we saw our placement,” said the 20-year-old Cizeron. “After the short program, we had nothing to lose and we were just very determined. I believe China is a lucky place for us.”
His partner 19-year-old Papadakis was too overwhelmed to comment about her performance. The young pair have made remarkable progress since moving up to the senior level last year, winning the European Championships, two grand prix events and now the world title.
Last year, they were only 13th at the world championships.
Skating to Mozart’s Concerto No. 23, Papadakis and Cizeron turned in an elegant performance that ended with Papadakis swinging with legs extended from Cizeron’s neck and then collapsing in his arms. They received four scores of perfect 10.00 from the judges.
American pair Chock and Bates settled for the silver. They were ranked first after the short program, but failed to present their best in the free skate. Canadian duo Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, the hot candidate for the championship, finished with bronze. “It just makes us hungrier to work even harder and peak at the right time and make sure the next four years are ours,” Weaver said. “We’ll come for revenge at (the season-ending) World Team Trophy.”
The only Chinese pair Wang Shiyue and Liu Xinyu, finished 19th among the 20 pairs in the final standing, and were not happy with their performance.
“We did not expect to get scores like this,” Wang said. “I think the problem is we were a bit tight today, lack of freedom. We want to do more international competitions to impress the judges, and the most important thing for us now is to improve our consistency.”
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