Yuma Kagiyama performs during the Men Free Skating at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating – Gran Primo d’Italia on Saturday. AFP
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, skating to “Gladiator” surged from seventh place overnight to win the Turin Grand Prix on Saturday.
Mikhail Kolyada of Russia took second from from fourth spot while Daniel Grassl delighted the home crowd with bronze, his first medal at this level.
Kagiyama, the 2021 world silver medallist, was a lowly seventh after an error-strewn short programme but hit back in style on Saturday.
“Of course, I just found out that I finished in first place, so I’m very surprised,” 18-year-old Kagiyama told isu.org.
“Coming into the long programme, I didn’t even think about being on the podium or getting a good score, I was just planning to do my best.
After the short programme I couldn’t change my mindset and even this morning I was feeling low in practice. I didn’t know what to do about the situation.”
World champion Anna Shcherbakova of Russia claimed victory in the women’s event with a new personal best in the free skate.
Compatriot Maiia Khromykh was second on her debut while overnight leader Loena Hendrickx earned bronze.
Hendrickx, who led the short programme on Friday, becomes the first Belgian woman to claim a medal at a figure skating grand prix.
Shcherbakova set a personal best of 165.05 points in the free skate for a total of 236.78 points
“My main goal for this competition was to show that my quad is back and I reached that goal,” the 17-year-old said.
“I made some mistakes in the short programme and I will work on it. The short program has to be clean every time, but am happy and satisfied with my performance today.”
In ice dance, France’s four-time world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron claimed gold.
World silver medallists Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the USA were second ahead of Russia’s Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin.
Papadakis and Cizeron impressed the judges with their elegant performance to Faure’s “Elegie”.
China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong skated to the pairs gold ahead of teammates Peng Cheng and Jin Yang with Russia’s Iuliia Artemeva and Mikhail Nazarychev settling for bronze.
Two-time world champions Sui and Han skated to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and collected 144.48 points for the free program with a 224.55 points total overall.
