PARIS, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Former Youth Olympic champion Sota Yamamoto led the men's standings after short program at the Grand Prix de France, which opened in Angers on Friday, beating compatriot Kazuki Tomono to second place.
Yamamoto hit a quad toe-triple toe combination and a triple Axel in his program to "Yesterday", and had a level four for his spins and footwork to earn 92.42 points, despite a somewhat shaky and slightly under-rotated quad Salchow.
The 22-year-old was the only male skater in the short program to score more than 90.00, as Tomono's entertaining jazz choreography earned him 89.46 points after the 2022 ISU Four Continents silver medalist stumbled on his quad toe.
Local favorite Adam Siao Him Fa set a season's best of 88.00 points and currently sits in third place.
"For the performance I was able to do that fine-tuning and basically I was just doing it like in practice in Japan. I was happy about that," Yamamoto commented.
"As for the Free Skating tomorrow, I practiced much more of my free skating than the short program. I just need to put out everything that I have," he added.
World silver medalist and Belgian champion Loena Hendrickx took the women's lead with a solid outing earning 72.75 ahead of South Korea's Yelim Kim, who scored 68.93 in the short program. Mana Kawabe of Japan finished third after setting a new season best of 68.83 points.
Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps of Canada grabbed a narrow lead in the pairs short program over France's Camille Kovalev/Pavel Kovalev. Karina Safina/Luka Berulava of Georgia finished third.
Two-time ISU European bronze medalists Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri of Italy came out on top in the rhythm dance, just edging Canadians Laurence Fournier Beaudry/Nikolaj Soerensen by a little over a point. France's Evgeniia Lopareva/Geoffrey Brissaud ranked third.
The Grand Prix de France, slated on November 4-6 and featuring 12 men, 12 women, seven pairs and 10 ice dance combinations, is the third stop of the 2022-2023 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, which consists of six invitational international senior events and the GP Final. ■
