PRAGUE (AP) — Ilia Malinin bounced back from misfiring at the Milan-Cortina Olympics by leading after the short program at the figure skating world championships on Thursday.
With a new haircut Malinin presented all that the spectators expected from the defending two-time world champion at O2 Arena.
He will go to Saturday’s free skate with a massive lead of more than nine points after a personal-best 111.29 score in the short program.
The performance showed the Olympic failure was behind him.
Known as the “Quad God,” Malinin opened with a quad flip and a combination of quad lutz and a triple toe loop. The only skater to have successfully landed a quad axel in competition performed only a triple version of his trademark jump.
French skater Adam Siao Him Fa nailed a perfect quad toe loop in combination with a triple toe loop plus a quad salchow for 101.85 points.
Aleksandr Selevko of Estonia was a surprise third after a personal best 96.49.
Japanese Olympic bronze medalist Shun Sato was fourth. Countryman and favorite Yuma Kagiyama, a two-time Olympic silver medalist and three-time worlds silver medalist, fell in a lutz attempt.
Andrew Torgashev was seventh and fellow American Jacob Sanchez was 10th in his senior worlds debut.
Malinin helped the U.S. win the team gold in Milan and was heavily favored to win individual gold with an unrivaled program. His five-point lead over Kagiyama and Siao after the short program seemed insurmountable.
But in one of the biggest upsets in figure skating history, Malinin fell twice and made other glaring mistakes in a disastrous free skate, falling from first to eighth place.
Malinin said he succumbed to the pressure at his first Games.
Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov from Kazakhstan was skipping the worlds.
The pairs free skate was later Thursday.
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