Prague (AFP) – Ilia Malinin pulled off a stunning short programme on Thursday, a month after his Winter Olympics collapse, to boost his hopes of a third consecutive world figure skating title as Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin won pairs gold. The 21-year-old Malinin slumped to an eighth-place finish at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, having led after the short programme in Italy.
But in his first competition since, Malinin hit a quadruple flip, triple Axel and quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination to score a personal best 111.29 points for his skate to a medley from “The Lost Crown” video game. “I was definitely coming back to prove myself that it (Olympics) was a one-time thing, but now I realise this is much more than just skating,” said Malinin. “It’s being able to go and enjoy and have fun. I got onto the ice and was in this zone and let everything happen.”
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Malinin, who finished his routine with a beaming smile on his face, takes a 9.44-point lead over France’s Adam Siao Him Fa into Saturday’s free skate. Estonia’s Aleksandr Selevko is in third place. Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama, the silver medallist at the last two Olympics, is sitting sixth after falling on a planned triple Axel.
In pairs, Hase and Volodin led all the way to win their first gold as defending world and Olympic champions Japan’s Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara skipped the event. The German duo won the title by a margin of nearly ten points on Georgia’s Olympic silver medallists Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava. Hase and Volodin, the Olympic bronze medallists, completed their world collection having won bronze in 2024 and silver last year. Canada’s Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud took bronze in Prague.
The world championships are taking place just a month after the Olympics, where Malinin had been the overwhelming favourite. The undefeated star of skating for over two years had been leading after the short programme before crumbling under the pressure in the free skate. “I tell myself that’s in the past already, it’s over, you have to get up and keep going,” the American told journalists on Thursday. “There’s nothing I could have done to change it. I don’t have a time machine to go back. Everything happens for a reason. I just have to move on and keep going.”
As for the free, “we’ll see a programme being finished, that’s for sure.” Siao Him Fa had a similar experience in Italy after a perfectly executed short programme that placed him third before the free skate relegated the Frenchman to seventh. Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov went on to win the Olympic gold ahead of Kagiyama and Shun Sato. Shaidorov is not competing in Prague.
On Thursday, Siao Him Fa also appeared relaxed and smiling after his performance, a tribute to Leonardo da Vinci. “When it works best is when I stop thinking and leave my brain at the sidelines,” said the Frenchman, who said he had learned valuable lessons from his Olympic experience. Japan’s Sato is fourth after the short programme.
On Friday, Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto has her eyes firmly fixed on a golden farewell as she leads the women’s standings heading into the decisive free skate. French ice dancers Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry, the only Olympic champions competing in Prague, open their campaign in the rhythm dance.
© 2024 AFP
