OSAKA, Japan (A.P.) – Thursday, three-time world champion Nathan Chen beat two-time Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu in the men’s short program at the figure skating World Team Trophy. Chen, a winner of the past five U.S. titles, opened with a quadruple flip and added a triple axel and a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination for 109.65 points. Japan’s local favorite, Hanyu, landed a quadruple salchow, a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination, and a triple axel for 107.12 points.
Jason Brown of the United States landed all his jumps and finished third with 94.86 points.
Last month, the 21-year-old Chen became the first American since Scott Hamilton to win a third consecutive World Figure Skating Championship men’s title in Stockholm, Sweden, where he also beat Hanyu.
Chen has not lost a competition since the 2018 Olympics.
The biennial World Team Trophy features the six best figure skating teams from the 2020-21 season.
Teams from Japan, the United States, Canada, France, Russia, and Italy are competing. Russia led the competition after the first day with 49 points, two ahead of the United States. Japan was third with 42 points. World champion Anna Shcherbakova of Russia won the women’s short program with a score of 81.07. The 17-year-old Shcherbakova opened with a double axel and lanJapan’sriple flip and a triple-lutz-triple loop combination. Compatriot Elizaveta Tuktamysheva was second with 80.35, while Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto was third with 77.78.Team USA has won four of the previous six competitions, with the other two by Japan. The U.S. is the defending champion. A limited number of fans were allowed into Maruzen Intec Arena even though Osaka is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases.
On Wednesday, Japan’s second-largest city recorded over 1,100 cases, its highest total since January.
With less than a yeJapan’so until the Beijing Olympics, many of the world’s top skaters are in Osaka, eager to get into another competition after several International Skating Uworld’sents were canceled this season due to the pandemic. The competition continues Friday with the men’s free program, the ice dance free program, and the pairs short program.
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