Fernandez edges Hanyu to grab second world crown

BOSTON, April 2, ( AFP): Javier Fernandez needed a little luck to keep his world figure skating crown out of the hands of Japan’s 2014 Olympic and world champion Yuzuru Hanyu, and he got it.

On Friday at the World Figure Skating Championships, the stars aligned for the Spaniard who sailed through his Guys and Dolls routine with nary a wobble, knocking off three pictureperfect quadruple jumps -- a toe-loop and two salchows , one in combination with a triple toe.

Fittingly, at one point in his choreography with Sinatra singing “Luck be a Lady Tonight”, Fernandez blew on imaginary dice for good luck. It worked.

The crowd at Boston’s TD Garden roared its approval as Fernandez was awarded 216.44 for his free skate, the second best score of all time, and 314.93 in total.

Fernandez said, “I told myself, ‘I have a chance to win and I have to do a clean programme’ and I did.

“It was not an easy day, not an easy month with a couple of injuries. I couldn’t do practice yesterday or early practice today. I went to the medical room today and they helped me so much so that I can have my skate on and actually skate,” said Fernandez, revealing that a sore swollen heel had threatened to derail his title defence here.

“I knew I had a chance to do the best programme of my life but it was not easy to do. I got my mind really set and I just wanted to do it,” he said.

Meanwhile Hanyu benefitted from the 12-point cushion he earned in the short programme and the bad luck that befell his archrival Patrick Chan to hang on for the silver medal after an error-strewn free-skate put his medal hopes in jeopardy.

Hanyu executed a nice quad toeloop but struggled with both quad salchows, falling on the second.

He earned just 184.61 for his finale set to the soundtrack of the Japanese film Seimei. That score was 34 points short of his own record.

The Japanese tallied 295.17 in all,

Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan performs in the Men’s Free Skating Program at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at TD Garden in Boston,

Massachusetts on April 1. (AFP)

well short of his monster score of 330. 43 at the Grand Prix Final last December.

“I’m disappointed. I want to do it over,” Hanyu said.

“I can’t explain my feelings. I’m really tired but I’m really happy for Javi’s programme,” he said, with a nod towards his Toronto training mate.

“To skate a good programme, I need to balance my body and my mental (approach) and I was probably not able to that too well today.”

The bronze medal went to China’s jumping phenom Jin Boyang but he, too, struggled with some jump landings including on his trademark opening quad lutz.

Still, he stayed upright on four quadruple jumps and two triple Axels to collect 181.13 for his free skate, 270.99 overall.

It was the first men’s world championships medal for China and an admirable senior world debut for the young man who won the world junior silver medal last season.

“I am pretty satisfied with my performance today. I skated a little tight at the beginning but after the first jump, I adjusted my mind a bit and did well in the rest of the jumps,” Jin said.

Canada’s three-time world champ Chan struggled to keep his footing on landing his jumps while planned triples turned to doubles.

Those costly errors dropped him out of the medals and into fifth place with 266.75 overall.

Earlier Friday, Chinese Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were the surprise leaders over the defending world champions and the reigning Olympic champs in the pairs opener.

World silver medallists last year, Sui and Han scored 80.85 for their Flamenco-styled programme which featured a high-flying lift and throw jump amid lightening quick footwork.

“We both feel very happy that we have done a perfect programme,” Han said.

Canada’s defending titleholders Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford put 78.18 points on the board with their best skate of the season to sit second.

Russia’s returning 2014 Olympic gold medallists and 2013 world champions, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov skated into third spot with 77.13 points.

In their bid for the title, Han an- West Indies Andre Russell celebrates after his team’s seven wicket win over India during their ICC World Twenty20 2016

cricket semifinal match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India on March 31. (AP) nounced that he and Sui will attempt both a quad throw jump and quad twist lift in Saturday’s final round, making their free skate programme the most technically difficult one planned. boundaries that has been difficult for oppositions once we get in that swing,” the ever-smiling all-rounder told reporters on Saturday.

The semi-final against India illustrated Sammy’s point.

Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni ran themselves ragged in the game, stealing singles and converting ones into twos to help India post a strong 192-2.

As has often been the case, the West Indian batsmen dealt mostly in boundaries to chase down the target in the final over, smashing 20 fours and 11 sixes, compared to India’s 17 and four respectively.

“I think since the inception of Twenty20, you’ve seen West Indies is a boundary-hitting team so that’s no surprise for me,” said Sammy, who is seeking to become the first captain to lead a team to a second World Twenty20 title.

“We know the power we have in the

Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China, compete during the pairs short program in

the World Figure Skating Championships on April 1, in Boston. (AP)