
Olympic bronze medallist Denis Ten left the competition in his dust with a flawless short programme at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Seoul on Thursday.
Aided by a perfect quad toeloop at the start, Ten, from Kazakhstan, scored 97.61 points, his highest of the season.
Shoma Uno of Japan was a distant second with 88.90 points, and Yan Han of China scored 87.34 points to rank third.
The free skate is scheduled for Saturday.
Ten, whose great-great-grandfather was a Korean-born independence fighter, said the event in Seoul carries a special meaning for him.
"I am ethnically Korean and I am virtually skating in my home country," he said. "I feel great support here... The competition isn't over yet. Hopefully I can finish this event on a positive note."
Earlier on Thursday, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada took the lead in the pairs after scoring their season-best 75.67 points in the short programme.
Two Chinese teams are trailing the current Grand Prix Final champs: Peng Cheng and Zhang Hao earned 69.81 points, while Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China scored 69.19 points.
Radford said he and his partner overcame butterflies in their stomachs to claim the lead.
"We're really happy with our short program. Before we went to skate, we were more nervous than usual," Radford said. "We didn't really have solid expectations of ourselves, and it's a nice relief to have that type of skate."
China's Pang Qing and Tong Jian, the two-time world champions who came out of retirement seeking their sixth Four Continents title, tumbled their way to fourth place at 66.87 points.
In ice dance, the US champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates scored 70.38 points in short dance to open a slim lead over fellow Americans, Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani, who posted 69.65 points.
Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Canada were in third after scoring 68.31 points.
Chock called the performance "definitely our best short dance so far in competition". Bates chimed in: "I think it was an improvement even from the US championships a few weeks ago. Every time we compete, we get a little more comfortable with the programme."
Source: AFP
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