The jumping American doesn’t give the competition a chance – and in the end finds it “quite okay”.
Figure skaters Ilia Malinin has successfully defended his World Cup title with an inimitable jump show in Boston. The 20-year-old American with the nickname “Vierfig-Gott” delighted the spectators in the sold-out TD Garden with a strong freestyle. Malinin landed six four -way jumps and crowned his idea with a backward salo.
It was not enough for the world record (333.76 points), which he had set up in his World Cup triumph last year, because he failed at Lutz. Nevertheless, his lead with 318.56 points on the Kazakh Mikhail Schadorow (287.47) and the Japanese Yuma Kagiyama (278.19) was huge. Malinin had already led after the short program.
“It was okay,” he summed up sober after his success: “I was glad that I was able to train all season to reach this moment.” Malinin was the only runner to be a four -time Axel, but his plan of seven four -way jumps in a freestyle did not work.
After the title win of Alyna Liu among women and Madison Chock/Evan Bates in Eisanz, thanks to Malinin’s best performance, the third gold of the title fights in the USA remained. Only in a pair run, Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara from Japan prevailed in front of Minerva-Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin from Berlin.