Competition day three at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2016 concluded Friday in Boston, USA with the Men’s Free Skating.
Javier Fernandez (ESP) skates to gold
Spain’s Javier Fernandez skated to the gold medal and repeated as World Champion. Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan slipped to second and took the silver like last year and Boyang Jin of China claimed the bronze, the first World Championship medal for a Chinese man.
Fernandez laid down a flawless performance to “Guys and Dolls”, reeling off a quad toe, quad Salchow-triple toe combination, another quad Salchow as well as two triple Axels, four more triples as well as difficult spins and footwork. The four-time European Champion scored 216.41 points, surpassing his personal best by 15 points, and racked up 314.93 points. “It was the last program of the season, I didn’t think about how important it was for me to win or anything, just kept going from jump to jump. Before skating, I knew that I had a chance to win, but that I have to do a clean program, and I did”, the 24-year-old said.
Skating to “Seimei”, a Japanese movie soundtrack, Hanyu produced a quadruple toeloop and five clean triples, but he struggled with his quadruple Salchow, touching down with his hand on the first one and falling on the second one. The Olympic Champion earned 184.61 points and slipped to second place at 295.17 points.” I can’t explain my feelings. I really am a little regretful about my long. I am really sad, and I am really happy for Javi’s program. I think that I was very calm before the free skate, but it’s not only this calmness that affects a performance. Of course, there is my physical condition and my mental condition, and I think that the balance between these two is very important. I do not think that I was able to achieve this balance today, and I felt that as I skated”, the 2014 World Champion told the press.
Jin had to fight for the landing of his quadruple Lutz in his routine set to “Dragon Racing”, but went on to land three other quads (one Salchow, two toes) as well as six more triples. The 18-year-old picked up 181.13 points and totaled 270.99 points to take the bronze in his debut at the World Championships.”I feel very excited to be the first man to win a bronze medal for China. For me, the meaning of it is really huge. It made my goal clearer for next season. For next season, I definitely want to train harder, do better performance, and get better result”, the 2015 World Junior silver medalist commented.
Mikhail Kolyada (RUS) pulled up from sixth to fourth with a strong Free Skating (267.97 points) while Patrick Chan (CAN) dropped from third to fourth after making some errors (266.75 points). Adam Rippon (USA) placed sixth (264.44).
The competition at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2016 concludes Saturday with the Pairs and Ladies Free Skating. For more information and full results please see: www.isu.org and www.worlds2016.com .