US figure skater Ilia Malinin on Saturday captured his second straight world championships title in Boston, with a record-equaling six quadruple jumps and an audacious backflip.
Malinin was in the lead after Thursday’s short program and he put the world on notice less than a year to go before the Milano-Cortina Olympics with a stunning display of athleticism in Saturday’s free skate for a total score of 318.56.
Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan was second with a total of 287.47, while Yuma Kagiyama of Japan (278.19) took bronze.
Photo: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images / USA Today
Fans were champing at the bit to see if the self-proclaimed “Quad God” would attempt history with seven quads in one free skate, as Malinin had been weighing the virtues of risk versus reward in the days leading up to the finale.
The 20-year-old came up one short, but the crowd at TD Garden scarcely seemed to mind, cheering wildly as he completed an exquisite quad Axel in a pristine performance that netted him a season’s best score of 208.15.
“I feel very relieved that I was able to put out that performance the way I tried,” he told reporters. “It wasn’t what I planned to, and of course there’s a few minor things that I can keep improving, but overall I feel pretty confident and I’m really happy for landing the quad loop finally this season.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Malinin added a bit of spice to the affair with an effortlessly executed backflip near the end of the program, a high-energy routine that whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
He and fourth-place finisher Adam Siao Him Fa of France became the first skaters in nearly 50 years to legally land the once-banned move at a world championships.
Silver medalist Shaidorov was third in the standings ahead of the free skate, trailing Malinin by more than 15 points, and told reporters he did not even have a medal in mind when he went out to skate.
“If someone had asked me at the beginning of the season that I would be on the world podium, I never would have believed it,” Shaidorov said. “The season was difficult but at the same time it was a breakthrough, and I’m just crazily happy to be on a world podium with such great skaters as Ilia and Yuma, and now I just want to keep moving forward.”
The men’s free skate wrapped up the sport’s largest event ahead of next year’s Winter Olympics.
Earlier in the day, Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates claimed gold to become the first pair in 28 years to capture three consecutive world ice dance titles.
Leading by almost four points after their electrifying rhythm dance on Friday — vast by ice dance standards — they were virtually flawless as they scored 131.88 points for their sophisticated free dance program to jazz classic Take Five, for a total of 222.06.
Their final spin, in which Chock balanced on Bates’ outstretched foot, had fans leaping to their feet seconds before the program ended, turning TD Garden into a sea of waving US flags.
“I’m just elated. It was unbelievable,” 32-year-old Chock said. “It almost felt unreal and the performance went by so quickly. I felt like we really flowed through everything with ease and flow.”
The victory sets up married couple Chock and Bates as favorites for Milano-Cortina, where the six-times US champions would aim for their first Games ice dance medal.
Additional reporting by AP
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