SEOUL, Feb 9 — Japan’s two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu clinched his first Four continents title today, becoming the first male skater to complete the so-called “Super Slam”.
Hanyu skated to Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi’s Seimei for his free skate, relying on the familiar music that secured his second Olympic gold two years ago at the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea.
The Japanese figure skating star hit a quad Salchow, quad toe-Euler-triple Salchow, a triple Axel, a triple flip as well as level-four spins and footwork, but stumbled on the quad Lutz and fell on an underrotated quad toe.
Hanyu scored 187.60 points and racked up 299.42 points overall to secure the title after winning three silver medals at the Four Continents.
“I was disappointed (with my mistakes) but I will be able to prepare for the World Championship by analysing today’s mistakes,” Hanyu said.
With today’s victory, the 25-year-old became the first male skater to complete the Super Slam of the junior world title, world title, Olympic gold, Grand Prix Final and continental championship.
American skater Jason Brown claimed the silver medal with an emotional performance to Schindler’s List, posting a personal best score of 180.11 points and 274.82 points overall.
“I’m super excited. I was really focused on going out there and skating my best performance that I could,” Brown said.
Japan’s 16-year-old Yuma Kagiyama delivered an impressive performance to the Tucker soundtrack and grabbed the bronze with 270.61 points in his International Skating Union (ISU) Championship debut.
Boyang Jin of China slipped from second to fourth after popping two planned quads into doubles to finish with 267.67 points, while South Korea’s Cha Jun-hwan came up from sixth to fifth at 265.43 points.
Four Continents features top skaters from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. — AFP
