Nathan Chen on Friday held on to his lead from the short program to edge Shoma Uno and win the figure skating Grand Prix Final.
Skating to Mao’s Last Dancer, Chen landed 3-5 attempted quad jumps in his free program.
Uno, two points behind Chen after the short program on Thursday, won the free skate, but it was not enough to overtake Chen, who finished a half point ahead with a total of 286.51.
Photo: EPA
Russian skater Mikhail Kolyada was third with 282.
The gold was an upgrade on the silver Chen won last year in his debut senior season.
“Last year, I wasn’t even expecting to be at the Grand Prix Final, so it’s an honor to win it this year,” he said.
Last year’s winner and Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu did not compete because he is recovering from a leg injury in practice last month.
He is the favorite two months out from the Olympics, which Chen still has to qualify for. To go to South Korea, he has to place in the top three in the US championships in the first week of January.
“I’m excited that this is an Olympic season,” Chen said. “Making the Olympic team is first on my ‘To do’ list.”
Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada landed all of her jumps cleanly and led after the women’s short program with 77.04 points.
World junior champion Alina Zagitova of Russia stepped out of the landing on her triple flip and was second with 76.27.
“I really felt controlled and I felt the program was really myself,” said Osmond, a bronze medalist at the Internationaux de France. “I really wanted to get another clean program done, because not having a clean program in France really upset me.”
The Grand Prix Final was to conclude yesterday with the ice dance and women’s free skate.
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