TURIN, Italy: US figure skating sensation Nathan Chen set new world record scores on his way to a third consecutive men’s gold at the ISU Grand Prix Final in Turin on Saturday, leaving vanquished Yuzuru Hanyu feeling “a little jealous”.
Two-time world champion Chen blew away his great Japanese rival with a total overall score of 335.30 points after his free skate to Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’.
Double Olympic champion Hanyu was thwarted in his bid for a record fifth Grand Prix Final title, taking silver with 291.43. France’s Kevin Aymoz won bronze with 275.63.
Taking to the ice last, Chen had a long wait for the rink to be cleared of the hundreds of Winnie The Pooh soft toys and gifts thrown onto the ice by Hanyu’s adoring fans on the Japanese skater’s 25th birthday.
The American nailed five quadruple jumps, earning extra points including two in the second half of his programme, culminating with a triple lutz-triple toeloop combination.
The 20-year-old bettered his own record scores from last year’s world championships in the free skate by 8.9 points and the overall record by nearly 12 points.
“It felt amazing, I’m really thrilled with the score,” said Chen.
Chen, from Salt Lake City, had taken a 13-point lead on Hanyu into the free skating final at the Palavela.
But Hanyu hit back with five quadruple jumps in a brilliant performance to Edvin Marton’s ‘Origin’, a composer Yevgeny Plushenko skated to 2006 Winter Olympics gold at the Turin rink.
The only glitch in the Japanese skater’s programme was his under-rotation of a triple flip and singling his final triple axel jump.
Hanyu was returning to the elite six-skater event after a two-year absence looking to topple Chen and lay the groundwork to reclaim the world title in Montreal next March.
Hanyu, who trains under Canadian coach Brian Orser in Toronto, won four consecutive Grand Prix Final titles between 2013 and 2016, and a fifth would see him overtake Russians Plushenko and Irina Slutskaya.
French champion Aymoz claimed his first podium place, surviving a fall on his second quadruple jump, in a solid performance to Patrick Watson’s ‘Lighthouse’.
Two-time world champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong led a Chinese 1-2 to claim their first pairs gold on Friday night ahead of Peng Cheng and Jin Yang.
