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BSP-03
FSKATE-WORLD-USA
World champion Chen wins Skate America title
LOS ANGELES, Oct 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Nathan Chen’s
“watered down” free skate was more than enough to give
the reigning world champion an emphatic victory Saturday
at Skate America, first event of the 2018-19 Figure
Skating Grand Prix.
Chen, learning to juggle training with classes in his
freshman year at Yale University, went easy on the
quadruple jumps at the Grand Prix event in Everett,
Washington.
But the American executed the scaled back program
beautifully to score 189.99 points.
That gave the 19-year-old a total of 280.57 and a
victory over Czech veteran Michal Brezina (239.51) by a
whopping 41.06 points.
“It’s a great start for me,” said Chen, who bounced
back from a disappointing fifth place at the Pyeongchang
Olympics last year with a blockbuster win at the World
Championships in Milan — where he completed six
quadruple jumps.
“I definitely had sort of lower expectations coming
into this event because I’m in a totally new situation
in life,” said Chen, who had three quadruple jumps in
his free skate.
“I’m really happy with what I did. I definitely, as I
stated before, watered down my programs a lot, but I
think it was definitely appropriate.”
Chen will now return to Yale in New Haven,
Connecticut, taking another break during the US
Thanksgiving holiday week to compete at Internationaux
de France.
The earliest this season that he could face his
biggest rivals — Japan’s Olympic gold and silver
medalists Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno — would be the
Grand Prix Final in December.
Russia’s Sergei Voronov, fourth after the short
program, was fourth in the free skate also but that was
good enough to put him on the podium in third place on
226.44 points.
Satoko Miyahara and Japanese compatriot Kaori Sakamoto
led the way in the women’s short program, Miyahara
topping the standings on 73.86 points to Sakamoto’s
71.29.
Japan had three skaters in the top four, with Russian
Sofia Samodurova (64.41) followed by Marin Honda.
Reigning US champion Bradie Tennell was the top
American in fifth heading into Sunday’s free skate.
The pairs title went to reigning European champions
Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia, who won
the free skate with 133.61 points to claim the overall
title with 204.85 points.
The Russian duo also won the short program on Friday.
Tarasova and Morozov were third at the 2017 world
championships and took second in this year’s worlds.
They have won the past two European crowns and took this
year’s Russian national title after winning the 2016-17
Grand Prix Final.
Russians Alisa Efimova and Alexander Korovin finished
second overall on 178.98 points. Americans Ashley Cain
and Timothy Leduc edged Efimova and Korovin for second
in the free skate but finished third overall on 175.06.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1041 HRS