The 2016 World Championships continued Friday with the.pairs short program and men’s free skate.
Pairs
Wenjing Sui and Cong Han, of China, are currently in first place after the pairs short program on Friday. Reigning World Champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, of Canada, are in second place.
Olympic Champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov, in their first season since the 2014 Olympics, are currently in third place.
Team USA’s Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim are in seventh place. Reigning U.S. Champions Tarah Kayne and Danny O’Shea are in 14th place.
The free skate will take place Saturday afternoon.
Men
Reigning World Champion Javier Fernandez took home his second World title in front of nearly sold out crowd at the TD Garden Friday. Fernandez laid down a flawless performance to “Guys and Dolls”, reeling off a quad toe, quad Salchow-triple toe combination, another quad Salchow as well as two triple Axels, four more triples as well as difficult spins and footwork. The four-time European Champion scored 216.41 points, surpassing his personal best by 15 points, and racked up 314.93 points.
“It was the last program of the season, I didn’t think about how important it was for me to win or anything, just kept going from jump to jump. Before skating, I knew that I had a chance to win, but that I have to do a clean program, and I did”, the 24-year-old said.
His training mate, Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu settled with the silver after what he said was a disappointing free skate. He completed a quadruple toeloop and five clean triples, but he struggled with his quadruple Salchow, touching down with his hand on the first one and falling on the second one. The Olympic Champion earned 184.61 points and slipped to second place at 295.17 points.
“I’m disappointed… I’m not sure what to say, I’m disappointed. I want to do it over,” Hanyu said immediately following his free skate.
Boyang Jin, of China, took home the bronze, which is China’s first World medal in men’s skating.
Team USA’s men delivered three exceptional free skates bringing the crowd inside the TD Garden to its feet.
Adam Rippon earned a second consecutive standing ovation in Boston’s TD Garden with his fourth place free skate (178.72) to a medley of four Beatles songs, landing eight clean triple jumps following an opening quad Lutz that was deemed underrotated by the technical panel. He moved up one spot to place sixth overall (264.44). Both are new ISU personal best scores.
“It was awesome! I was really nervous going into today. I felt a little shaky in my warmup. I fought through everything but at the same time I tried to have the best time ever and I did,” Rippon said following his free skate.
Max Aaron also earned a standing ovation with his free skate (172.86). He finished in seventh place in the free skate to finish eighth overall.
“I’m telling you, there’s nothing like this. I’ve never been to an Olympic Games, but if this is anything like the Olympic Games, I can’t tell you how much fun I would have out there if I can make it. This is truly special. It’s a moment I will never forget, “Aaron said.
Grant Hochstein received a standing ovation for his 9th place free skate (162.44) and moved up to finish 10th overall (237.25), setting two ISU personal best scores. He landed his opening quad toe loop, followed by all eight of his planned triples, in a heartfelt, emotional performance.
“I‘m like what is it cloud 9? I‘m like on cloud 11. It‘s what I‘ve been working towards. When you get to a big competition like this, it‘s kind of surprising, but I was prepared to skate that way. Gosh, it felt good. Just being at worlds is a dream and after I got here I don‘t even know how far my dreams extended. I think it’s pretty close to everything I wanted it to be, ” Hochstein said immediately following his free skate.
The competition concludes Saturday with the pairs and ladies free skates.
