Chen ekes out victory over hometown favorite Uno (12/8/17)

Chen ekes out victory over hometown favorite Uno

18-year-old becomes first U.S. man in nine years to win Grand Prix Final

Posted 12/8/17 by International Skating Union

Short program leader Nathan Chen had a few shaky landings during his free skate to music from 'Mao's Last Dancer' and Igor Stravinski, but in the end, he did just enough to maintain his lead and win the gold. With his victory, Chen becomes the first U.S. man to claim the Grand Prix Final title since Evan Lysacek in 2009. -Getty Images

Nathan Chen squeaked out a victory over Nagoya's own Shoma Uno to become the first U.S. man to win the Grand Prix Final since 2009, while Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada took the lead over Russia's Alina Zagitova in a hotly contested ladies race.

Men's free

Chen opened his performance to music from Mao's Last Dancer with a solid quad lutz-triple toe combination and also produced a quad toe-single loop-double salchow, in addition to three Level 4 spins. However, he stumbled on his quad flip, fell on a downgraded quad toe and under-rotated his second quad lutz. The U.S. champion picked up 183.19 points for his free skate, second best in the segment behind Uno, and held on to first place with 286.51 points overall

"Not really the performance I was expecting to do here, but I will take it as a good experience and just try to improve from here," Chen said. "There were some technical things that I know I can fix, and these things I just adjust as the season goes on, especially the quad toe. I know I was tired toward the end, so I wasn't able to get the lift that I needed, but the only thing I can do is keep working on it."

Performing to Turandot, Uno went down on his opening quad loop but recovered to land a quad salchow, a quad flip and two excellent triple axels. He did make mistakes on both of his quad toes, however. The world silver medalist scored 184.50 points for the performance, and he remained in second place with 286.51 points.

"The quad toe loop today was the jump my body was not ready for. I was fairly disappointed with that," Uno said. "I was proud of getting both quad salchow and quad flip done. I just need to work on the toe loop from now on."

Kolyada had to overcome a rough start to his Elvis Presley routine, when he fell on both his quad lutz and quad salchow, but he recovered to produce a quad toe-triple toe, a triple axel-double toe and three more clean triple jumps. The Russian champion earned 182.78 points on the day and totaled 282.00.

"It's great, a great feeling. Being on the podium is a special feeling. I can't put it into words; this word doesn't exist yet in the Russian language," Kolyada said excitedly. "Now, I am going with a positive feeling into Russian nationals."

Sergei Voronov of Russia delivered a strong performance that included a quad toe-triple toe and five clean triples to move up one spot to fourth place (266.59 points). American Adam Rippon pulled up from sixth to fifth (254.33), while fellow Team USA member Jason Brown slipped from fourth to sixth (253.81).

Ladies short

Osmond nailed a triple flip-triple toe combination, triple lutz and double axel, and earned Level 4's for her spins and footwork in her Édith Piaf routine. The world silver medalist posted a new personal best of 77.04 points.

"I really wanted to get another clean program done, because not having a clean program in France (at Internationaux de France) really upset me," Osmond said. "I just really wanted to enjoy my performance, so I told myself to be calm and do what I do in practice, to have fun and enjoy it. That is exactly what I did."

Zagitova's Black Swan free skate featured a triple lutz-triple loop combination and a double axel, as well as difficult spins and footwork, but she stepped out of the landing of her triple flip. Nevertheless, the 15-year-old managed a personal-best 76.27 points.

"I am pleased that I was able to deal with my nerves and finally do my combination jump in the short program," the world junior champion said. "I was more confident. ... I think I relaxed (on the triple flip), because I was happy to have done the combination."

Performing to Memoirs of a Geisha, Miyahara completed a triple lutz-triple toe combination, triple loop and double axel on her way to a season's best 74.61 points.

"This season, I didn't have the Grand Prix Final in my mind, but now that I am here, I didn't want to waste this amazing chance that I got," Miyahara said. "I thought my jumps were better than at Skate America and my scores were better as well. I knew if I skated a clean program, I would go over 70 points, and I had a clean skate, so I was very satisfied."

Russia's Maria Sotskova earned a personal-best score of 74.00, good for fourh place, while Wakaba Higuchi of Japan put out a clean performance to finish fifth (73.26 points). Carolina Kostner of Italy came in sixth (72.82 points).