Olympic bronze medallist Denis Ten of Kazakhstan dazzled the crowds in Seoul on Saturday as he stormed to victory at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships.
The 21-year-old scored 191.85 points in the free programme for a total of 289.46 points, well ahead of Joshua Farris of the United States, who managed 260.01 points.
Yan Han of China finished third with 259.47 points.
Ten's total score was the third-highest ever recorded at an International Skating Union (ISU) event. This was Ten's first Four Continents victory in six career appearances.
Ten, whose great-great-grandfather was a Korean-born independence fighter, enjoyed strong support from South Korean fans at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul.
The skater said earlier in the week that he was taking more interest in Korean history and that he was "virtually skating in my home country".
Ten held a comfortable 8.71-point lead over Japanese Shoma Uno after the short programme. The Kazakh had a shaky start, failing to start a triple jump in his opening quad-triple combination and land a double toeloop midway through.
But he more than made up for those miscues with a dazzling finish. After his programme ended, Ten went down on his knees and then on his back in exhaustion.
"Today, I didn't have a great start, and I had some stressful situations early," he said. "I had to really focus on getting points. I am glad I could overcome the situation."
It was a year ago Saturday that Ten won his historic bronze medal in Sochi, becoming the first skater from his country to reach an Olympic podium.
"It's a good way to celebrate the anniversary of the medal,"
he said. "This competition was my second Olympics. It's not a foreign place for me. It's a huge honour for me to do well here because it's basically my second home country."
In the pairs earlier on Saturday, Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada cruised to their second Four Continents title.
They earned 143.81 points in free skating for a total of 219.48, easily getting past China's Peng Cheng and Zhang Hao, who managed 131.64 points in free skating for a total 201.45.
Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China, who came out of their one-year retirement, earned 133.12 points in the free skating for 199.99 points to finish third.
Duhamel and Radford are unbeaten this season. They have won two Grand Prix events, the Grand Prix Final and the Canadian national championships.
Next up: the worlds in Shanghai in March. The two will be chasing their first world title after finishing third in each of the past two.
"It was important that we came here and showed strong performances," Duhamel said. "We definitely feel confident from this competition but we realise there's room to improve a lot before the worlds. We're really looking forward to the next month of working toward Shanghai."
Source: AFP