Kao Miura (JPN) skated into the lead in the Men’s Short Program at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Colorado Springs (USA) Thursday.
The 2022 ISU Four Continents bronze medalist took a five-point lead over Canadian Champion Keegan Messing in the Men’s Short Program. Jimmy Ma (USA) follows in third place.
Miura wobbled on his opening quad Salchow but stood up on it. The ISU Grand Prix Finalist went on to complete a triple Axel and quad toe-triple toe combination in his Tango routine and collected a level four for two spins. The 2022 Four Continents bronze medalist scored 91.90 points to sit in first place.
Kao Miura (JPN) takes a five-point lead into the Free Skate following his Tango-based Short Program routine © ISU
“I made a mistake on my [quad] Salchow in the beginning but I was able to add a triple toe loop at the end of the [second half quad toe loop] combination at the end so I was able to keep my mistakes to a minimum,” Miura explained.
“From the Grand Prix series I tend to have a very good outing with my Short Program. So in an international setting I could say that it is my forte.
“However, in the Grand Prix series I always did not make it in Free Program and allowed others to surpass me, so there's still a lot of issues to be resolved.
“Here at the Four Continents, I want to keep up this good momentum into my free skating with the Beauty and the Beast and I hope to portray that world nicely for the audience here.”
Messing put out an entertaining performance to “Grace Kelly”. He missed his quad toeloop but recovered instantly to produce a triple Axel, triple Lutz-triple toe and his trademark fast and well centered spins. The Canadian got a level four for two spins and posted a season’s best of 86.70 points.
“Honestly the performance tonight felt very good and I loved being able to go out there,” he said.
Keegan Messing (CAN), who says he's adapting to the high altitude of Colorado Springs, lies second © ISU
“This was actually the easiest it was to get through the whole program this whole week and I think I'm finally starting to figure out how to breathe the thin air up here,” Messing noted, referring to the high altitude of 1800m in Colorado Springs.
“I was a little upset that I missed my [opening] quad toe, but one of the goals for this year is not to let the jumps affect the performance of the program. And so I just let the quad toe slide and I just took every step to the maximum of my ability to go out and give the audience the best show I could possibly give them.
“And, honestly, with just doing that, I believe my head [is] held high tonight.”
Performing to “Black Swan”, Ma landed a quadruple toeloop, triple Lutz-triple toe, but he slightly underrotated his triple Axel (q). The American Skater nevertheless earned a new personal best score of 86.64 points.
Jimmy Ma (USA) took great delight in being able to skate his Black Swan routine on home ice one last time © ISU
“I'm just really glad that I was able to retire this program on a good note,” Ma commented.
“It's definitely one of my favorites - even though on paper it doesn't really work well with me - but there's a reason why I wanted to go back to it and being able to perform it like that in my home country and in a rink that I'm really familiar with is a dream come true.”
Two-time ISU World bronze medalist Boyang Jin (CHN) entered his first competition since the 2022 Olympic Winter Games after missing the first part of the season recovering from injury and illness. He landed a quad toe, triple Axel and triple Lutz-triple toe for a score of 85.32 points.
2022 ISU Four Continents Champion Junhwan Cha (KOR) had to overcome a distraction at the start when the referee called him over as there was a paper clip on the ice. He fell on the back end of his triple Lutz-triple loop combination and currently ranks fifth (83.77points). Shun Sato (JPN) missed his quad toe to finish sixth at 80.81 points.
2022 ISU World Junior silver medalist Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) arrived only a few hours before the competition as he was delayed due to visa problems and got on to the ice after a 35-hour trip. His jumps were shaky and he came 12th on 72.43 points.
Schedule of the event
The schedule of the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships is as follows:
Thursday, February 9: Women’s & Men’s Short Programs
Friday, February 10: Pairs Short Program, Rhythm Dance & Women’s Free Skating
Saturday, February 11: Pairs & Men’s Free Skating
Sunday, February 12: Free Dance & Exhibition Gala
For full entries and results, please see the ISU event page and the official website. Follow the discussion on social media using #4ContsFigure and #FigureSkating.
Where to watch the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships 2023:
The ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships will be live streamed on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. Geo-restrictions will apply in markets where TV rights are in place. You will find the full list in the Where to Watch news here.
Subscribe to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive alerts when the live streams start and when new videos are posted.
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