US figure skating star Ilia Malinin made an impressive comeback after his Olympic drama at the World Championships in Prague.
After a breathtaking air show in the short program, the 21-year-old clearly leads with a personal best of 111.29 points and is now on the verge of his third world title. The freestyle takes place on Saturday (12.30 p.m.).
Malinin was only 2.68 points behind his compatriot Nathan Chen’s short program world record from 2022. Behind Malinin is the Frenchman Adam Siao Him Fa in second place (101.85 points). Third is Aleksandr Selevko from Estonia (96.49 points).
Malinin with a spectacular air show
In his program, Malinin showed two quadruple jumps and one of his impressive back flips. Malinin, who is nicknamed “Quadruple God” because of his many quadruple jumps, also led after the short program at the Olympic Games in February. In the free skate, however, he experienced a dramatic fall: he only came eighth as the heavy favorite.
The only German participant, Genrikh Gartung, made it into the final of the best 24 figure skaters in his World Championship debut and as the youngest starter in the entire competition in 23rd place. “It was okay, not perfect, but I’m happy with what I did today,” said Gartung, who had problems with the triple Axel and the quadruple Lutz but had a solid performance overall. (dpa)
