Japan’s Shoma Uno was on Saturday finally crowned men’s world figure skating champion at the sixth attempt in Montpellier, as French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron won a fifth world crown.
Uno, 24, totaled 312.48 points, a new personal best, to take the title in the absence of the injured stars, compatriot Yuzuru Hanyu and American Nathan Chen.
Chen, a triple world champion who claimed Olympic gold last month in Beijing, has a “persistent,” but unspecified, injury. Hanyu, a double Olympic champion and double world champion, has a problem with his right ankle.
Photo: AFP
“I am finally first,” said Uno, who took Olympic silver in 2018 and bronze last month, and has twice been a runner-up in the world championship.
Uno led after the short program and landed five quadruple jumps, as he skated to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. He beat his 18-year-old compatriot Yuma Kagiyama, second in the Olympics, who scored 297.60 points. American Vincent Zhou was third on 277.38.
Teenager Kagiyama, who won silver at last year’s world championships and also at last month’s Olympics, paid dearly for an attempted triple Axel that turned into a single and an incomplete rotation on one of his quads.
Photo: AFP
For Zhou, the bronze was redemption.
The 21-year-old was forced out of the Olympic men’s event following a positive COVID-19 test on the eve of competition. He won a second world championship bronze, after collecting one in 2019.
Olympic champions Papadakis and Cizeron claimed a fifth world ice dancing title, with world record scores all the way, to add to the golds they won in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Papadakis, 26, and 27-year-old Cizeron sealed gold after a memorable two days on home ice with a new world record total of 229.82 points.
Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue took silver with 222.39, ahead of fellow Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates, 216.83. The top three couples all train together in Montreal.
“It’s one of the best competitions of our career, we felt incredible support, especially after the Olympics,” Cizeron said after winning gold in Beijing behind closed doors.
“That’s one of the reasons we love what we do so much. The goosebumps, the emotions that come with the noise, it’s indescribable,” he added.
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