Japan's Uno leads at Rostelecom Cup, Fernandez 2nd
MOSCOW (AP) - Japanese figure skater Shoma Uno unleashed two quad jumps to earn a strong lead after the short program of the Rostelecom Cup, putting him in position on Friday for his second grand prix gold of the season.
Uno, who this year became the first to execute a quad flip in international competition, opened his program with the jump, though he lost some points for putting his hand down on the landing. He followed it with a quad-triple toeloop combination.
With a 98.59 score, he was more than seven points ahead of world champion Javier Fernandez. The Spaniard stepped out of the final landing of a quad-triple toeloop combination. He appeared to be aiming for a quad salchow as his second jump, but managed only a triple.
Russia's Mikhail Kolyada was third.
Anna Pogorilaya led a Russian sweep of the women's top positions at the end of the first day. The world bronze medalist opened with a triple lutz-triple-toeloop and was strong and vivid throughout, scoring 73.93. Elena Radionova was exactly two points behind, and Olympic gold medalist Julia Lipnitskaia, who withdrew from Skate America two weeks earlier because of injury, was third.
Russians Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert led the pairs by 0.25 points. Their short program featured a high triple twist and a solid triple-loop throw; they notched 6.76 points.
World championships bronze pair Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany outpointed them on program components, but both of them fell on their triple salchows and they ended the day in second place.
Italy's Valentina Marchei and Ondrej Hotarek were third.
American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates have taken a narrow lead after the short dance segment.
Chock and Bates, who skated to George Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone," executed all figures precisely except for a slightly out-of-synch twizzle segment. They scored 75.04 points.
Russia's Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Soloviev trailed by just 0.12 points, their short dance highlighted with her difficult back-flip descent from a lift. Canada's Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje were third on 69.81.