■Figure Skating Grand Prix (GP) Final (8th Japan time, Grenoble, France)

The men’s single free skating (FS) was held, and Yuma Kagiyama (21, Oriental Bio/Chukyo University), who placed second in the short program (SP), won the silver medal in the top free skate with a total of 281.78 points.

SP leader and world champion Ilia Malinin (20, USA) achieved her second consecutive victory. Shun Sato (20, Aim Service, Meiji University), who placed 4th in SP, moved up the rankings in the free skate and took his first final podium in 3rd place.

Kagiyama landed a quadruple flip in the early stages, but missed his signature quadruple salchow and ended up doing a double flip. He then landed a series of quadruple and triple toe loops, regained his grip, and then landed a series of jumps from the triple accelerator. In the second half, when his basic points were 1.1 times higher, he succeeded in a quadruple toe loop and a single triple axel, but his combination from a triple flip resulted in points being deducted. He didn’t smile after his performance, but his expression softened a little when he scored a kiss-and-cry.

Marinin takes on the big quad axel (quadruple and a half), and is the first in history to have an “other-dimensional composition” that incorporates all types of quadruple jumps (axel, lutz, flip, loop, salchow, toe loop). However, he fell on his third quadruple Lutz and lacked rotation on his other quadruple jumps, including Axel. Although not everything was a success and his score did not increase, he showed a dignified performance as a champion.

Sato landed the opening quadruple Lutz, but his axis tilted during the flip and he fell. In the subsequent jumps, he showed a stable performance until the end without any major collapse.

For the women, Amber Glenn (25, USA) won for the first time. Momone Chiba (19, Kinoshita Academy) finished on the podium in 2nd place, and Kaori Sakamoto (24, Sysmex) finished in 3rd place. This was the first time in the history of the finals that Americans won both the men’s and women’s races.

[Men’s single results]
1) I. Marinin Total 292.12 points (SP105.43, FS186.69)
2) Yuma Kagiyama Total 281.78 points (SP93.49, FS188.29)
3) Shun Sato Total 270.82 points (SP86.28 points, FS184.54)
4) D. Grassle Total 254.96 points (SP81.76 points, FS173.20)
5) M. Shaidlov Total 253.75 points (SP91.26, FS162.49)
6) K. Amos Total 238.63 points (SP68.82 points, FS169.81)