TOKYO — Defending champion Yuma Kagiyama performed a near-flawless routine on Friday to lead a Japanese sweep of the men’s figure skating short program at the NHK Trophy. “Today’s performance, from beginning to end, went just as planned.” Kagiyama’s compatriot Kao Miura was second with a personal-best 102.96 points while Tatsuya Tsuboi completed a sweep of the top three places …
BEIJING — Nathan Chen had just shattered the world record for a figure skating short program, even throwing a defiant fist in a rare display of emotion, when he was asked how he’d spend the next 48 hours before his long-awaited Olympic coronation. To finally get an opportunity to skate the programs I wanted feels really good.” Kagiyama drilled a …
Two-time and reigning Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu returned from a long injury layoff to land two quadruple jumps and score a world-leading 111.31 points in his short program at the Japanese championships on Friday. He landed a quad salchow, a quad toe-triple toe combination and a triple axel to post a score nearly five points ahead of American Nathan Chen’s …
SOCHI, Russia — Kamila Valieva headed a Russian women’s podium sweep at the figure skating Rostelecom Cup on Saturday to underline her status as favorite for the Olympic gold medal in Beijing. The 15-year-old Valieva landed three quadruple jumps, two of them in combinations, to Ravel’s “Bolero” and scored 185.29 points in the free skate for a 272.71 total. Russian …
