Uno Shoma leads after men's short program, on cusp of first-ever Grand Prix Final gold
The reigning world champion had a minor blip, but otherwise was superior in a men's field lacking big-event experience. In pairs, Japan's Miura and Kihara lead by a slim margin.
Figure Skating
Uno Shoma is on the cusp of another big "first" in his storied career.
The reigning world champion and three-time Olympic medallist soared to the lead at the Grand Prix Final on Thursday (8 December) at the Torino Palavela in Turin, Italy, scoring a 99.99 to take the pole position into the free skate.
Uno won his seventh and eighth Grand Prix gold medals earlier this season, and will be favoured to win his first Final in the free skate on Saturday afternoon (10 December). Uno won the title as a junior in 2014, and since has won four medals.
This is the first staging of the Grand Prix Final since 2019 due to pandemic cancellations in 2020 and 2021.
His compatriots Yamamoto Sota and Miura Kao made it a Japanese sweep of the men's top three in the short, scoring 94.86 and 87.07, respectively.
Home favourite Daniel Grassl is fourth, while American Ilia Malinin, who won both his Grand Prix events this season, struggled to fifth.
In the pairs short program, Japan's Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi, the reigning world silver medallists, have a slim lead over the reigning world champs, Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the U.S.
Miura/Kihara scored a 78.08 to sit just 0.43 ahead of the Americans, who are at 77.65.
Men: Uno shines as Malinin stumbles
The two men who had won both their Grand Prix stops this season were Uno (Canada, Japan) and Malinin (USA, Finland), but experience seemed to help the Japanese skater, who will turn 25 later this month.
He skated prior to Malinin and was crisp on a big opening quadruple flip. He, then, held onto his combination, a quad toe-loop-double toe that he followed with a triple Axel, skating to John Mayer's "Gravity" and earning 9s across the board from the judging panel for his Program Components (artistry).
"Good job," said coach Stephane Lambiel as Uno came off the ice. Lambiel won silver at Torino 2006 in this very building.
"Recently I’ve been able to feel rewarded from my practice, so I feel relaxed and I’m able to find fulfillment from the competition," Uno said, via an interpreter. "I don’t know if I’ll be able to do a great performance in the free, but I’ve been able to keep making efforts without any regrets, so I think I’ll be fine.”
Only Yamamoto, making his senior debut in the Final, was as technically sound at Uno, landing a quad toe-triple toe, quad Salchow and triple Axel.
Malinin, meanwhile, suffered blips on all three of his jumping passes, including a step out on his quad-triple opener, a quarter-under call for his quad Salchow and a near fall on his triple Axel. He did not attempt another quad Axel, the jump for which he's made headlines this season.
The American is in fifth at 80.10, just 0.30 back of Grassl (80.40). They are seven points off Miura and the podium, however. Japan's Sato Shun is sixth.
Pair skating: Miura/ Kihara lead by a sliver
The Japanese duo has overcome a shoulder issue to Miura this season, which impacted their preparation period ahead of the Grand Prix season, getting just five weeks to ready for Skate Canada.
But they won gold there, then repeated that feat at home at NHK Trophy, where they notched the highest pair score of the season with a 216.16 overall.
Their 78.08 is just 0.17 below a career-best score in the short program, which came at NHK Trophy (78.25). They were excellent on their triple twist to start, then connected on side-by-side triple toe-loops and executed the hardest throw of the evening, a throw triple Lutz.
“I was very nervous before the competition as it was first GP Final for us," Miura said, via an interpreter. "I usually don’t tell [Ryuichi] that I’m nervous, but this time, I told him, and he said this is not the goal so it’s okay if we fail. So although I was nervous, I was able to perform with confidence”
Added Kihara: “Yes, I could tell that she was nervous, but in the practice, our moves were great, so I thought we would be fine.”
Their slim margin came from the GOEs (Grades of Execution), outdoing the Americans on the triple twist and side-by-side jumps.
Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps sit third, scoring a 69.34. Stellato-Dudek, 39, is back competing in her first Final since winning it as a junior singles skater - in the year 1999.