Chen, Zhou dominate free skate at World Team Trophy

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This article was published 12/04/2019 (2741 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FUKUOKA, Japan – Two-time world champion Nathan Chen and teammate Vincent Zhou dominated the men’s free skate on Friday and increased the lead of the United States at figure skating’s World Team Trophy.

Skating to “Land of All,” Chen landed three quad jumps to finish first in the free skate with 199.49 points.

First after the short program, Chen opened with a quad salchow and added a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination in the first half of his routine. The 19-year-old full-time student at Yale also landed a quad toeloop.

Zhou, a bronze medallist at the world championships, also landed three quad jumps to finish second with 198.50 points. Shoma Uno of Japan was third with 189.46. Nam Nguyen of Toronto was seventh.

The United States leads the overall standings with 91 points, 12 ahead of Japan. Russia is in third place with 70 points. Canada is fourth at 59.

Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France won the free dance to win gold in ice dancing with 135.82 points. Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov of Russia were second with 130.63 points while Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the United States were third with 127.11. Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Weaver of Waterloo, Ont., were fourth.

Six countries are competing in the sixth edition of the World Team Trophy. The others are France, Italy and Canada.

The United States has won the event three times, in 2009, 2013 and 2015, while Japan took top honours in 2012 and in 2017.

The competition concludes on Saturday with the pairs and women’s free skate.

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