The Beijing Winter Olympics men's figure skating short program competition ended this afternoon. The much-watched Japanese player Yusei knotted the string, impacting the Olympic trio of consecutive championships, and it seems that it will come to an abrupt end at the beginning of the competition.
His first move was to jump out of the air.
Although the second half was perfect, in terms of technical scores, Yu Sheng only had 48.07 points, nearly 20 points less than the first American Chen Wei. In the end, Chen Wei ranked first with a total score of 113.97 points, and Yusheng Yuxin ranked eighth with 95.15 points.
This is the worst short program ranking in the World Series.
The worst record before was at the 2012 World Championships, when Yu Yu was ranked seventh in the short program.
If Yusheng Jiexin wants to compete for the championship, it is equivalent to chasing Chen Wei's 20-point gap, which is unimaginable unless Chen Wei himself seriously loses his hand. And since 2018, Chen Wei has not lost to Yusheng in the top competition, and today's short program has also created a new world record for scoring.
But to chase the medal position, the feather knot string is still promising. Yumasa Keyyama, who came in second place, scored 108.12 points in the short program; Masama Uno scored 105.90 points in third place. The feather string is about 13 and 10 points apart, respectively.
At the Japan Championships held late last year, Yusuke Habu won the free skate and later runner-up Masama Uno by about 18 points. So this catch-up is not a fantasy.
Of course, this requires Yu Sheng's own super high level of play, and there can be no more mistakes like today's, half a time. After all, Yujin Key mountain and Masama Uno are also first-class strength for gold, and there is no reason to be a cushion.
The fourth place in the short program was South Korean Cha Joon-hwan, with a score of 99.51 points. Perhaps starting from him, the temporarily leading players, Yu Yusuke will not have too much pressure to catch up in the free skating stage.
Instead of waiting for Yu Sheng to compete for gold, it is better to see how he catches up with him; see how he perfectly interprets, and even jumps out of the fantastic 4A.