Mikhail Shaidorov finished fifth in the men’s short program at the Cup of China while Kao Miura took the lead.
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Olympic gold medallist Mikhail Shaidorov’s uneven start to the new figure skating season continued Friday at the Cup of China in Shenzhen, China, where a cleaner performance still left him in fifth place after the short program.
Kao Miura of Japan moved into first with a short program that included two high-scoring quadruple jumps, earning 102.90 points.
Miura’s 102.90 was 30 more than the erratic short program that placed him ninth in the Grand Prix opener in France two weeks earlier. He later rebounded in the free skate for silver.
Shun Sato, Miura’s Japanese teammate, was second on 101.97, followed by Russian Evgeni Semenenko competing as a neutral athlete in third on 99.72.
Shaidorov of Kazakhstan avoided the falls that troubled him in France last month, but he stepped out on the landing of his opening quad lutz for a score of 94.87.
Canada’s only representatives at the competition, pairs skaters Jazmine Desrochers and Kieran Thrasher, were seventh after the short program in their senior Grand Prix debut.
In the women’s short program, world silver medallist Mone Chiba led on 76.08 points despite an error on a double axel. Chiba said she was skating her first program since the world championships in March, after an offseason ankle injury, and she returned to the Grand Prix series for the first time since the 2022 Olympics.
Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia was second with a personal-best 75.05 points. Alexandra Ignatova, skating as a neutral athlete, was third on 72.37 in her biggest international event since the 2022 Olympics.
The 17-year-old Alexandra Trusova, now 22 and competing under her married name and as a mother to a one-year-old son, is part of the field; the International Skating Union has approved neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus for a wider range of events this season after they were limited to the Olympics and one Olympic qualifier last season.
In ice dance, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain led the rhythm dance with 80 points, beating Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin of Georgia on 79.31. Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler of the Czech Republic were third on 73.10.
In pairs, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov, Russians competing as neutrals, had a big lead with 74.69. European champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava were second on 67.06 after a spin was ruled invalid, while Karina Akopova and Nikita Rakhmanin were third for Armenia on 66.34.
Desrochers, of Mississauga, Ont., and Thrasher, of Windsor, Ont., scored 59.24 points in the pairs short program. They finished eighth at a Challenger Series event in Massachusetts in September and seventh at an international competition in Scotland last month.
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