Chen first, Hanyu second in short programme

MOSCOW: Reigning world champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan opened his grand prix season here on Friday by finishing second in the short programme behind Nathan Chen of the United States.

Chen recorded a season-best performance of 100.54 points at the first of six events to qualify for the Grand Prix Final in Japan in December, which comes barely two months before the start of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

He had two shaky landings on his quad flip and triple axel jumps.He made up for it, however, with a spectacular combination of the quad lutz and triple toe loop.

“In terms of the programme, I’m happy with the scores that I got,” Chen told a news conference.Hanyu, the defending Olympic champion, made a difficult landing on the quad loop jump at the start of his programme before falling on his triple toe loop, earning him 94.85 points.

The 22-year-old, who set a short programme record score of 112.72 points last month, told reporters that “just little things” had gone wrong and that he was eager to refocus for Saturday’s free programme.

“I feel really close to success,” Hanyu said.“I will just fix those things for tomorrow. I will recover. I will do better tomorrow.”Dmitry Aliev of Russia, who was taking part in his first senior grand prix, finished third with 88.77 points.