Olympic silver medallist Shoma Uno wins Lombardia Trophy
The Japanese figure skater won the Italian event for the third year in a row.
Figure Skating
Japan's Shoma Uno claimed the Lombardia Trophy in Bergamo on Saturday for a third consecutive year.
The PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist was not at his best in Italy, but he won comfortably with a total score of 276.20.
Uno finished clear of the Russian pair Dmitri Aliev (250.55) and Andrei Lazukin (243.45).
Skating to Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' in the free programme, Uno fell on his triple axel and did not execute the majority of his quad jumps cleanly.
But the two-time World Championship runner-up went on to retain his title and there will surely be improvement to come after his first outing of the season.
European silver medallist Dmitri Aliev took second place after a clean programme which saw him get the better of team-mate Andrei Lazukin.
Italian youngster Matteo Rizzo came fourth on home soil with a total of 227.97.
Despite a fall, the Fiamme Azzurre skater showed he can take another step towards the elite of the world skating this season.
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What's next?
The big names in figure skating are all making their seasonal debuts in the coming weeks.
The Lombardia Trophy is the third stop of 10 in this season's ISU Challenger Series.
Next weekend's Autumn Classic International in Oakville, Canada is another Challenger event and sees Uno's team-mate and double Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu make his highly-anticipated return to competition after PyeongChang.
The top-tier ISU Grand Prix gets underway with Skate America on 19 October.
Uno will make his 2018-2019 Grand Prix bow at Skate Canada on 26 October.