By Gina Capellazzi and Sean Conlon, Team FSO
\nPhotos by Robin Ritoss<\/p>\n
After previously winning two world silver medals, it was finally time for Japan’s Shoma Uno to stand on top of the podium and claim his first world title.<\/p>\n
The 2022 Olympic bronze medalist opened his Ravel’s Bolero free skate with quadruple loop and followed it up with a quadruple Salchow, quadruple toe-double toe combination, quadruple flip and two triple Axels. The only mistake came when he underrotated a quadruple toe and singled the flip in combination with the second triple Axel. He earned a 202.85 in the free skate, which was the first time the 24-year-old cracked the 200-points barrier in the free skate. He earned a personal best total score of 312.48 to claim the gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was my last short and free program for this season, so I wanted to have a performance that made my coach Stephane Lambiel proud. I was able to achieve that and I haven\u2019t won too often, so I\u2019m very happy about that,\u201d the 24-year-old said.<\/p>\n
For the second consecutive year, Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama claimed the silver medal. The 2022 Olympic silver medalist landed a quadruple Salchow, quadruple toe and a quad toe-Euler-triple toe in his “Gladiator” free skate, but his quadruple loop was downgraded and he popped his planned triple Axel into a single Axel. The 18-year-old scored a 191.91 points in the free skate and finished with a total score of 297.60. This is just Kagiyama’s second Worlds appearance.<\/p>\n
“Today it didn’t go as well as at the Olympics. I made some really bad mistakes on the (quad) loop and the Axel,” Kagiyama said following the free skate. “Emotionally I was really nervous and that’s the reason why I couldn’t do so well. The tension was maybe because I had a great opportunity to win and I was trying to put on a perfect performance, so maybe that fed my tension.”<\/p>\n
After not being able to compete in the men’s individual event at the 2022 Olympics due to testing positive for COVID, Vincent Zhou was looking to have a happy ending to the 2021-2022 season and claim his second world medal. Zhou’s \u201cCrouching Tiger Hidden Dragon\u201d free skate included a quadruple Lutz, quadruple Salchow and triple Lutz-Euler-triple Salchow, but a few jumps were called underrotated. The 2022 U.S. bronze medalist, who was in sixth after the short program, finished fourth in the free skate with 181.54 points and moved up to third place to claim his second World bronze medal with 277.38 points.<\/p>\n
“I feel very, very proud of myself,” the 21-year-old said after the free skate. “A week ago, I wouldn\u2019t have thought any of this was possible. I couldn\u2019t do anything in training leading up to this. I don\u2019t want to sound like a broken record, but as I\u2019ve said a lot of times, I was mentally in a very bad place. I couldn\u2019t do anything. But I got myself on the plane, I got myself together. I took it one practice at a time, and now I\u2019ve put out two strong performances. I\u2019m so proud of myself.”<\/p>\n
Finishing just off the podium in fourth place was Georgia\u2019s Morisi Kvitelashvili. Opening his program with a quad Salchow-triple toe combination, the 27-year-old landed two more quads \u2013 both of which were quad toes \u2013 a triple Axel, and four other triples to earn a personal best free skate score of 179.42 and a personal best total score of 272.03. This marked Kvitelashvili\u2019s highest finish at the World Championships, moving up 10 places from the previous year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was cool \u2013 I managed to have a lot of fun from the arena, from my skating,\u201d Kvitelashvili said of his performance. \u201cIn general, I\u2019m satisfied with the placement. However, the first part of the short program and a small mistake on the flip in the free have spoiled the overall impression. It wasn\u2019t ideal but I\u2019m glad that I could get myself together to skate and to show what I\u2019m able to do to please the audience. I\u2019d like to thank everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being called in to replace teammate Nathan Chen a week before the competition, Team USA\u2019s Camden Pulkinen moved up from 12th place after the short program to third in the free skate after landing two quad toes and two triple Axels in his \u201cB\u00e9same Mucho” performance. Pulkinen, who turned 22 the day before the free skate, finished fifth overall with his highest combined total of 271.69, receiving three personal best scores on his first trip to the World Championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels still surreal \u2013 I think I\u2019m still processing the fact that I\u2019m actually at Worlds!\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I skated that program I knew that I was well-trained for it. I\u2019m just very thankful it happened and I was happy I could give myself a nice 22nd birthday gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my first full clean free skate,\u201d Pulkinen continued. \u201cI still want to progress both technically and artistically, definitely working on other quads for these next four years and hopefully make the [2026 Olympic] team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s Kazuki Tomono, who sat in third place after the short program with 101.12, dropped to eighth place in the free and sixth place overall, receiving a combined total of 269.37.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis season I had a lot of competitions where I came close to winning a medal,\u201d Tomono said. \u201cThe results didn’t follow yet, but this is going to help me for next season. There is still a lot to do, but I fought well through this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Team USA\u2019s Ilia Malinin dropped from fourth in the short program to 11th in the free skate after falling on a downgraded quad Salchow and turning out of a downgraded quad toe. He finished the competition in ninth place.<\/p>\n