Canadian world champion Patrick Chan won the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships (4CC) on Friday.
Chan shook off a poor morning practice session by nailing his program in the men’s free skate, posting a season-best 185.99 points to claim the titles with 273.94 points.
He easily outpointed Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, the Vancouver Olympics bronze medalist and defending Four Continents champion. Takahashi earned 161.74 points in the free skate and 244.33 overall.
The US’ Ross Miner, this year’s US bronze medalist, survived a fall in the free skate to post a season-best 146.34-point score and earn the bronze at 223.23 points. He narrowly edged compatriot Adam Rippon for a spot on the medal stand. Rippon had a season-best 146.63-point score to finish at 221.55.
Earlier, two-time world champion Mao Asada of Japan won the women’s short program.
The 2010 Olympic silver medalist’s four-minute routine was clean enough to earn a score of 64.25 points, just ahead of this year’s US champion Ashley Wagner at 64.07. Japan’s Kanako Murakami, the 2010 World Junior champion, was third with 63.45 points.
The only hitch to Asada’s program came on her first jump, a triple axel rare for women, which she was unable to land cleanly.
“My performance was good, except the triple axel in the beginning,” Asada, who won the event in 2008 and 2010, said through an interpreter. “I want to take this as a learning experience and skate well tomorrow. My biggest goal of this competition is including the triple axel and at least I tried it. It wasn’t perfect, but I’m pretty happy to land the triple axel.”
Asada wasn’t the only member of her team who enjoyed the day. Her coach, figure skating Hall of Famer Nobuo Sato, was honored by US Figure Skating at the World Arena before the men’s free skate.
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