Hanyu edges out YOG star for skating gold

Shoma Uno (JPN) won silver at the Gangneung Ice Arena, while Javier Fernandez (ESP) took bronze.

Hanyu, an Olympic Solidarity scholar from Sochi 2014, landed two quads during his short programme on 16 February, which was the second-highest short programme score ever recorded at 111.68. (Hanyu also holds the record.) Hanyu, a huge celebrity in Japan, then landed a stylish quad-triple combination during the free programme on 17 February. He scored 206.17 and 317.85 overall.

Silver for YOG star

Uno, skating to Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, was in first spot after the short programme. He couldn’t quite hang on to gold after the free programme, falling on his first quad, and scoring 306.90 overall. But he adds silver to the gold and silver medals he won at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Innsbruck 2012.

Two-time world champion Fernandez skated to music from Man of La Mancha in his free programme, after landing two quads to finish second in the short programme. Fernandez previously said he planned to retire after the Games.

Master strategist

“I have no words right now. I am overwhelmed,” said Hanyu. “I am just happy with my performance and my hard training.

“Getting to this place was really tough. Because I had time off from skating, I was able to do a lot of planning and thinking about strategy.”

Uno was philosophical about his mistake in the free programme. “I missed the first jump, but the rest of the programme was fine. I stayed calm after the mistake and was able to give a good performance. I tried to skate like in practice.

“I tried hard for the jumps. I know the success rate is not that high, but I still wanted to try everything.”

Six-time European champion Fernandez made a wobbly landing on his quad salchow early in his programme but regrouped to earn 197.66 points for his free skate and 305.24 overall.

“I know I didn't do the perfect programme, but I was satisfied with what I did,” he said. “It got me an Olympic medal.”