Malinin dominates figure skating short program ISU Grand Prix Final

Ilia Malinin of the United States led the men's short program on the opening day of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final at the National Indoor Stadium in Beijing on Thursday.  

Malinin achieved a season-best 106.90 points, followed by Japan's Olympic medalists Shoma Uno and Yuma Kagiyama in second and third places, respectively, with 106.02 and 103.72 points. France's European champion Adam Siao Him Fa, who won the Cup of China last month, had to settle for a sixth-ranked 88.36 points as he underperformed.  

The 19-year-old succesfully landed a quadruple Axel, which is his signature jump as he remains to be the only skater to date who has conquered what is commonly recognized as the most difficult jump among all six jumps of figure skating, which makes him an early title favorite at the next Winter Games in Milan-Cortina.  

"I feel really great and glad that I was able to put the quadruple Axel in the short program under pressure. It is an honor for me to work hard, make all the efforts and spend hours and hours in skating to compete here," he said.

Also on Thursday, the pairs event took place with Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin leading the short program with 72.56 points, followed by Canadian pair Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, who were fellow titlists with Siao a month ago, with 71.22 points and Italian pair Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii with 70.30 points. 

"We are not very happy. We had some mistakes on the throw and jump in the short program. Some steps are in our direction, and some of them are not so much. So, we need to go and train the short a little bit harder for our next event," Deschamps said.  

The tournament, which is being held for the first time in 13 years, runs from December 7 to 10 in the venue that hosted figure skating events during the Beijing Winter Olympics.