Canada’s Patrick Chan won his third consecutive men’s title at the World Figure Skating Championships, even though it was Kazakhstan’s Denis Ten who captured the free skate final.
But Chan’s already rocky season came within an ice shaving of ending in disaster after he crashed twice.
Delighting a crowd of home-nation supporters, Chan on Friday took the overall crown with 267.78 points to edge Ten, who was second on 266.48. Spain’s Javier Fernandez, the European men’s champion, was third with 249.06.
Chan dominated the short programme on Wednesday with Ten finishing second, but in the free skate performance, it was Ten who was triumphant with 174.92 points to 169.41 for Chan and 169.05 for Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu.
It was the seven-point cushion that Chan enjoyed going into the free skate performance that saved the Canadian from losing his crown after being outscored by unheralded Ten.
Chan opened his “La Boheme” routine with the same bravado he showed in setting a new points record two days earlier with his short programme.
He landed back-to-back, picture-perfect quadruple jumps but seconds later the programme began to unravel. Chan first crashed on a triple lutz and then on his triple Axel.
The quads, however, scored 30 points and that, combined with his unmatched mastery of performance and the short-programme cushion, gave him the triumph.
Ten, who competed hurt much of the season due to various injuries, also opened with a quadruple toe loop.
He delivered two triple Axels and stayed on his feet throughout a joyfully expressive performance set to “The Artist” and spectators rewarded the ecstatic Ten with a thunderous standing ovation.
Fernandez rose to the podium after finishing seventh in the short programme, masterfully executing two different quads and scoring high performance marks for his charming Charlie Chaplin programme.
Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, ninth in the short, also clawed his way back up the ladder to finish fourth on 244.99 while Canada’s number two skater, Kevin Reynolds, dropped from third to fifth overall, finishing on 239.98.
Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi, who was expected to contend for a medal, finished sixth with 239.03 points.
Russians Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, runners-up at worlds the past two years, took the pairs world title by winning Friday’s free skate final.
Volosozhar and Trankov finished with combined judges’ scores of 225.71 points while four-time and reigning world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany were second overall on 205.56.
At these last worlds before the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, competitors look to stake early claims to next year’s Olympic podium and post results that will earn their countries the most entries possible for Sochi.
Canada and Japan will each have three men on the Olympic roster based on results Friday.
Chan hangs on to claim 3rd figure skating world title
