Asia wins Team Challenge Cup short program
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - Sham Uno completed the first ratified quad flip and posted a huge personal best at the Team Challenge Cup figure skating competition on Friday night.
Uno, the 2015 World Junior champion from Japan, had the top score with a 105.74, a personal best by almost 13 points, as he hit his historic opening quad flip and a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination.
"I feel like it was 50-50 so I'm really surprised," the 18-year old for Team Asia said. "I'm really lucky tonight that I made it."
Uno and Denis Ten, who skated after missing warmups with a broken skate, led Team Asia to the short program championship.
The competition featured three men and three women representing Asia, Europe and North American. All scores counted toward the team score, but skating in groups of three they received 12, 10 and 8 points for their group placing.
Team Asia finished with 64 points as Boyang Jin of China, bronze medalist at the recently completed World Championships, topped his group with the second-best score of 93.18.
Led by American Ashley Wagner, North America was second with 62 points. Team Europe finished with 54 points.
Ten, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist from Kazakhstan, scored a 92.53, after using the warmup time to tape his left skate before going out and nailing his routine.
"I wouldn't say I felt confident all throughout the performance, because my skate just broke like seven minutes ago," Ten said. "So I couldn't do the warmup and I wasn't quite sure that I felt the right balance in my left foot.
"Throughout the performance, I just tried to be focused. This is my last event this year and I was afraid I couldn't perform the short program well."
Wagner scored 74.54 points, second among women behind 2016 world champion Evgenia Medvedeva of Russia, who had a personal best of 77.56.
"Nerves for events like this kind of hit you at times you totally don't expect them to," said Wagner, who won the silver medal at the World Championships in Boston three weeks ago. "I was center ice in the beginning position when I realized I was at a competition. I think that definitely helped keep me nice and relaxed.
"Other than that, this is more for mental practice for me and sticking to the technique . I had been training so hard under pressure. I am way out of shape and I'll be the first person to tell everybody that, so I have no idea what to expect for tomorrow. But for tonight I'm really happy with what I did."