US win figure Skating World Team Trophy
The United States won figure skating’s season-ending World Team Trophy on Saturday, tightening their stranglehold on the event with a record fifth title.
Teenage “QuadGod” Ilia Malinin helped the Americans clinch the gold on 120 points, comfortably clear of South Korea on 95 and Japan on 94.
The US have now won the event, which is held in Japan every two years, more than half of the eight times it has been staged.
Russia, who won the competition two years ago, were banned from defending their title because of the war in Ukraine.
The 18-year-old Malinin has forged a reputation as one of the sport’s hottest young talents and last year became the first skater ever to land the fabled quadruple axel in competition.
He did not include the ultra-difficult jump in his programme for the six-team competition in Tokyo and finished fifth in the men’s free skate.
The Americans had already racked up a sizeable lead heading into the third and final day, helped by first-place performances from Malinin, ice dance world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates, and pairs team Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier.
Cha Jun-hwan, who finished as runner-up behind Japan’s Shoma Uno at last month’s world championships, won the men’s free skate to help Korea claim second ahead of Japan.
Korea’s Lee Hae-in won both the women’s short programme and free skate ahead of Japan’s world champion Kaori Sakamoto, who fell in both routines.
Japan were missing Uno, who pulled out earlier this week after failing to recover from an ankle injury.
Italy finished fourth, followed by France in fifth and Canada in sixth.
AFP