Quad axel carries Malinin to US men's figure skating crown
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She took a near 19-point lead into Sunday's decisive free skate in Columbus, Ohio
Washington (AFP) – Ilia Malinin opened with another stunning quadruple axel and even a free skate fall couldn't slow his progress to a second straight men's title at the US Figure Skating Championships on Sunday.
The 19-year-old dubbed the "Quad God" took a near 19-point lead into Sunday's decisive free skate in Columbus, Ohio, and nailed a quadruple axel, a quad lutz and a quad salchow before falling on another quad lutz. After a shaky moment, he closed with a trio of triple jumps, topping the free skate with a score of 185.78 for a triumphant total of 294.35.
Two-time Olympian Jason Brown was second on 264.50 and Camden Pulkinen third on 262.33. Malinin is the only skater to land a quadruple axel in competition, first doing so in his senior level debut at Skate America in 2022.
Bronze medalist at last year's world championship, he won last month's ISU Grand Prix Final at Beijing -- where he landed a quad axel in the short program and a quadruple loop in the free skate to become the first skater to perform all six types of jumps as quads in competition.
Now he'll head to the World Championships in Montreal on March 18-24 as the favorite to take the crown from Japan's Shoma Uno.
Malinin said uncertainty stemming from recent boot problems meant he didn't decide until Sunday's warmup whether to attempt a quadruple axel -- something he surely wouldn't need to win after building a huge lead in the short program.
"Definitely on the warmup I was really thinking about it," he told broadcaster NBC. "It was really hard for me to decide." Finally, he said, he just decided "I'm going to do this. I'm going to try it, see what happens."
Although he struggled on some technical elements, Malinin said the national championships had shown his progress in artistry and he was looking forward to another showdown with Uno, a skater he admired as a youngster.
"I watched him skate even before I started competing internationally," Malinin said. "So (it's) just an honor that we both look after each other and we're always pushing each other. "It's going to be an exciting worlds."
