Olympic favourite Malinin stumbles at Grand Prix Final / Photo: PAUL MILLER - AFP
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Olympic favourite Malinin stumbles at Grand Prix Final
Ilia Malinin gave his Olympic figure skating rivals a glimmer of hope after botching his signature quadruple axel to finish the short programme third at the Grand Prix Final on Thursday.
The 21-year-old American, a two-time world champion, is the red-hot favourite to take gold in his Olympic debut at the Milan-Cortina Games in February.
But the self-styled "Quad God" showed he was only human with his costly error in Nagoya, giving him a score of 94.05.
He trails Japanese pair Yuma Kagiyama (108.77) and Shun Sato (98.06) heading into Saturday's free skate.
Malinin is the only skater to land the quad axel in competition and he was attempting the ultra-risky jump for the first time this season.
"I don't think it's really going to affect my confidence," he said.
"This was just a place for me to try new things.
"Maybe I'll have a different decision, for example, what I want to do for the Olympics," he added.
Malinin, who is aiming for his third straight Grand Prix Final title, has been in imperious form this season.
He won both his grand prix assignments, setting a new world record free skate score along the way.
He achieved those results without the quad axel and he admitted he did not have "the best feeling" as he prepared to unleash it in Japan.
"It didn't feel so good during the warm-up so I was still kind of not so sure about it," he said.
"I decided to go for it anyway and you can risk it and this is what happens."
Malinin said he still planned to include a quad axel in his free skate routine.
"That's still the plan, but depending on how I wake up that day, we'll see how I feel," he said.
- Kagiyama in the zone -
Malinin and Kagiyama were the only two men's singles skaters to qualify for the six-man elite final with two grand prix wins.
Kagiyama, the silver medallist at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, was seen as a distant rival to Malinin for Olympic gold.
But he jumped back into contention with an electrifying performance that earned him a personal best score.
"Tonight I wasn't really making eye contact with the crowd or trying to convey anything to them," said the 22-year-old.
"I was just concentrating on myself and setting myself the goal of giving my most enjoyable performance."
Kagiyama skated a clean routine and punched the air in celebration when it was over.
He also leapt out of his seat when his score was announced.
"It felt a bit like it did during my short programme at the Beijing Olympics," he said.
"I was conscious of each element but I was also able to flow them all together in a natural way."
In the pairs competition, Japan's world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara took the lead after the short programme with a score of 77.32.
Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii were second on 77.22, followed by Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava on 75.04.
In ice dance, Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States led after the rhythm dance with a score of 88.74, ahead of France's Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron (87.56), and Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (82.89).
Z.Bhatia--MT
