Japan's Rika Kihira broke the women's short program world record in the first day of the ISU Grand Prix final in Vancouver, Canada. Kihira, along with 2018 Olympic Champion Alina Zagitova, performed the best at the event, which runs till December 9.

The final six figure skaters for the short program were made up evenly by Japanese and Russian athletes. Kihira was the third to appear on the ice, and the 16-year-old stole the limelight by performing a series of high difficulty maneuvers. The Japanese nailed a triple axel with decent completion and then during her routine set to Clair de Lune. She also had a triple flip-triple toe and triple Lutz with her arms over her head.

The teenager finished the short program smoothly with 82.51 points, which was not only her personal best but the highest of the season and a new world record. 

PyeongChang Olympic winner Zagitova had a triple flip and registered 77.93 points. The Russian stayed in the hunt to defend her Grand Prix Final crown but was 4.58 points behind Kihira.

Kihira said after the fruitful day, "The score was higher than my expectation. Now I'm thinking of the upcoming free skate. I had been working on this set of moves since last year. I could complete the Axel triple in training but never got it down in competition before. This time I made it and feel full of confidence."

In the men's short program, after Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu withdrew due to injury, American Nathan Chen took center stage, and despite putting his hands down on a quadruple toe loop landing, he tallied 92.99 points to top the men's field.

Olympic silver medalist Shoma Uno came second, just 1.33 points behind the 19-year-old leader, Chen.