Americans win ice dance title
SAITAMA, Japan — Shoma Uno prevailed in a quad showdown in the free skate on Saturday to become the first Japanese man to defend his title, and Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States won their first ice dance crown at the figure skating world championships.
Uno, skating to a selection of music that included Bach, attempted five quadruple jumps at Saitama Super Arena. He landed all of them except the quad salchow which he under-rotated for a total of 301.14 points.
South Korean skater Cha Jun-hwan was second with 296.03 points followed by American teenager Ilia Malinin, who became the first skater to land a quadruple axel at the world championships and finished with 288.44 points.
Uno capped an impressive performance by the hosts that saw Japanese skaters take gold in three out of four disciplines for the first time in history. Kaori Sakamoto won the women’s title while Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the pairs gold.
Malinin attempted six quadruple jumps. He landed his opening quad axel but under-rotated a quad lutz which was part of a combination and was deducted points on a quad flip and a quad lutz.
It was Malinin’s first medal at the world championships.
First after the rhythm dance, Chock and Bates finished first in the free dance with 134.07 points for a total of 226.1.
Reigning European Champions Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri of Italy were second with 219.85 points while Grand Prix Final Champions Piper Gilles and Paul
Poirier of Canada were third with 217.88.
Chock fell once but it was not on a required element.
“We had to dig very, very deep many times, but I know we would not be sitting here without all this experience,” Chock said, adding the fall came as a shock to her. “I just caught my heel on the ice and it was so surprising.”
Chock and Bates, the three-time Four Continents champions, have been together for 12 years.
“We’ve been pursuing this goal for so many years,” Bates said. “It was exciting and stressful all at the same time. I know that the ice dance field is very competitive. We’ve competed against all these teams for so many years.
“We really wanted to focus on ourselves, and skate our best, and highlight all the work that we’ve put this year into these programs.”