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Hanyu leads as he bids for 4th straight Grand Prix Final win

Dec 8, 2016 | 3:15 PM

MARSEILLE, France — Yuzuru Hanyu took the lead with an electrifying performance in the short program on Thursday to stay on course for a fourth straight Grand Prix Final figure skating title while Canada’s Patrick Chan was right behind him in second place.

In perfect rhythm to the funky sounds of “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince, the Olympic champion from Japan brought the crowd to its feet at the Palais Omnisport, as he recorded his season-best score of 106.53.

“This program can’t be completed without the audience,” Hanyu said through a translator. “When I got out on the ice this morning I felt really comfortable. I feel like my body was well rested.”

Chan, a three-time world champion from Toronto, had a score of 99.76 and two-time world champion Javier Fernandez was third with 91.76 after some sloppy errors.

Although Hanyu had to slightly correct a landing on his opening quad loop, he was clean on his quad Salchow and triple toeloop. Even coach Brian Orser was dancing along to the routine beside the rink as the crowd got increasingly louder.

Hanyu was probably the only one not totally impressed.

“My skating skill can still be improved and I can improve my jumps,” he said.

Chan put some pressure on him with his season-best score.

“I felt pretty happy about today’s performance,” said Chan, also a two-time Olympic silver medallist . “It’s my first good short program internationally for a long time.”

But Fernandez’s bid to upstage Hanyu at the Final after finishing runner-up in the past two years now looks a longshot.

The Spaniard just about recovered a fall on his quad Slachow and fell again on his flying sit spin.

“I wasn’t happy for sure, more than one mistake this time,” he said. “We just have to go back to practice to find out what is going on with this short program. When I go to competition there are always mistakes. I just have to keep myself strong for the free program on Saturday.”

A comeback had precedence: At the worlds in April, he clawed back a considerable deficit on Hanyu to win.

Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov nailed all of their jumps for a season-best 78.60 to lead the pairs from Yu Xiaoyu and Zhang Hao, who also scored a season best, 75.34.

The Chinese pair is working well in its first season, having won the Cup of China in Beijing last month.

Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford have a lot to do to win back the title they lost to Russians Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov last year.

Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., were recent winners at the NHK Trophy in Sapporo, Japan, but the two-time world champions are in third place here with 71.44 points after Duhamel made a couple of errors.

She put one hand on the ice landing slightly awkwardly on a triple lutz, and fell over backward on the throw triple axel.

It proved to be a tricky night for the Canadians, with Julianne Seguin of Longueuil, Que., and Charlie Bilodeau of Trois-Pistoles, Que., in last place with 60.86.

They fell once each. Bilodeau fell back on the triple salchow, and Seguin tumbled forward on the throw triple lutz.

Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert of Russia skated with elegance to the melancholic sound of Georgi Sviridov’s “Snowstorm” but a lack of technical difficulty put them in fifth spot (65.79) behind China’s Peng Cheng and Jin Yang (70.84).

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With files from The Canadian Press.

Jerome Pugmire, The Associated Press