Figure skating-Japan's Uno retains world title to delight home crowd (updated)
25/03/2023 13:48
(Adds detail, quotes)
SAITAMA, Japan, March 25 (Reuters) - Shoma Uno retained
his men's figure skating world title with a nerveless free skate
on home ice on Saturday after Madison Chock and Evan Bates
overcame a fall in their free dance to win their first ice dance
world title.
After overcoming an ankle injury this week, Uno was not at
his best but landed four clean quads in his "Air on the G
String"/"Mea tormenta, properate" routine to earn 196.51 points
and finish with an overall score of 301.14 points.
Uno, who led rising American star Ilia Malinin after
Thursday's short programme, dropped to the ice and lay on his
back as he soaked up a standing ovation from the delighted home
crowd at the Saitama Super Arena.
"Today's performance was far from perfect, but I did
everything I can do at this moment and it took everything I
had," Olympic bronze medallist Uno, 25, said after becoming the
first Japanese man to retain a world title.
"There were many shaky jumps. These past two weeks have
been very tough for me, I was in bad shape... I have not done
well in international competitions at home in the past and I'm
really glad I finally came through. It means a lot."
Cha Jun-hwan, 21, became the first South Korean man to win a
world medal after setting personal best scores of 196.39 and
296.03 to take silver.
Malinin, 18, landed the first quadruple axel at a world
championship but errors on his five other attempted quads meant
he finished third with 288.44 points.
Uno's victory capped a golden week for Japan, after Kaori
Sakamoto retained her women's title and Riku Miura and Ryuichi
Kihara won the country's first pairs gold.
Earlier, Chock and Bates were crowned world champions in
their 10th appearance in the competition with an overall score
of 226.01 after they topped the free dance with 134.07 points
while performing to "Souffrance"/"Les Tectoniques".
The American pair finished more than three points ahead of
Italy's Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri after Friday's rhythm
dance and hung on to their lead to win gold despite Chock
tumbling midway through their programme.
Reigning European champions Guignard and Fabbri took silver
with 219.85 points while Grand Prix Final champions Piper Gilles
and Paul Poirier of Canada won bronze with 217.88 points.
Chock and Bates, who bagged the Four Continents title on
home ice last month, have previously won one silver and two
bronze world medals.
"We've been pursuing this goal for so many years and it just
happened 10 seconds ago," Bates said. "It's really hard to put
this moment into words and what it means to us, I'm so happy."
(Reporting by Hritika Sharma in Bengaluru
Editing by Toby Davis)
((hritika.sharma@thomsonreuters.com;))