Cup of China 2023: Uno Shoma dazzles in season debut to lead men after short program
In his first international competition of the year, the two-time world champion soars to a massive 14-point lead over French Grand Prix winner Adam Siao Him Fa.
Figure Skating
One name stood out above the rest in the men's event at the Cup of China figure skating Grand Prix in Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
Japan's two-time reigning world champion Uno Shoma had yet to compete this season, skipping Challenger Series events and not being assigned to any Grands Prix in the first half of the series.
The appetite of both the fans in the arena and watching around the world to finally see him on ice was therefore strong. And, on Friday (10 November), the Japanese satiated his fans' hunger with a dazzling skate that put him nearly out of reach of his closest competitors.
Uno has been unbeaten in competition since he finished third at the Bejing 2022 Winter Olympics, and certainly looks like continuing that streak in China after scoring a whopping 105.25 points, his opening quad flip the pick of the jumps.
France's Adam Siao Him Fa, last week's winner at his home Grand Prix in Angers where he joined the exclusive 100–200–300 club of skaters to have scored above each of those thresholds in the short program, free skate, and total score respectively, had looked on course for a repeat performance to put up a challenge to Uno's favourite status.
He opened with a majestic quad Lutz, which received a grade of execution score of +4.27 (the maximum is +5) from the judges. But he fell on his quadruple toe loop, leaving him without a combination, to end up on 91.21 points, more than 14 points behind Uno.
Still in just his first Grand Prix season, Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov put together a composed skate to sit third on 89.94. Skate Canada International champion Yamamoto Sota of Japan struggled on all three of his jumps and finished the short program in a distant eighth place.
In the pairs event, Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps overcame a slight error on their throw jump to lead after the short program.
Stellato-Dudek put her hand down on the ice for balance while landing the throw triple loop, but the Canadian veterans and Skate Canada International champions look in good stead to qualify for December's Grand Prix Final in Beijing after scoring 70.39 to lead by four points.
Italy's European silver medallists Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini are second on 66.33, while the new Chinese team of Peng Cheng and Wang Lei – Peng having split from previous teammate Jin Yang – sit on 62.91 in their Grand Prix debut together.