Crystal Skate

The winner, after a shaky short programme, was Nathan Chen The results of the men's short programme left a lot of figure skater fans baffled, particularly those like me, who didn't watch it. The standings at the start of the final had Jason Brown first, Alexander Samarin second, Nathan Chen third, Boyang Jin seventh and Dmitri Aliev ninth. There might be others who surprised you, but these were the names that stood out to me the most. The final therefore started with all possibilities widely open. We were off to a rocky start with Daniel Samohin 's rendition of Once Upon a Time in Mexico . The Israeli fell on a 3Salchow and both 3Axels before losing control of the change combination spin. He couldn't find it in him to mask the disappointment, so the presentation got worse the more errors he made. Score: 133.66  -> 205.99 . Keiji Tanaka  followed in Daniel's footsteps - he stepped out of three jumps (4Salchow, 3Axel and 3Lutz) as well as tripled out of th...

Determined to win - Japan's Shoma Uno The men's short programme left us all in awe. The host's Keegan Messing defeated Japan's super star, Shoma Uno, who is exactly 0.01 points ahead of South Korea's newbie, Junhwan Cha. Hold onto your hats. This final is by no means already settled. Jason Brown   is first to skate with a medley from Simon and Garfunkel. He still doesn't land a quad, as he doubles out of the Salchow. I have to say, and this is just personal opinion, I don't feel his new programmes are as spectacular as some of his old routines. Score: 158.51  -> 234.97 . Kevin Aymoz 's expression stays the same throughout the routine, but it's a testament of his fabulous presentation skills. Very expansive, open movements and lots of displays of flexibility. Making no mistakes sure helps. Score: 151.26  -> 230.09 . Roman Sadosky  steps out of the 4Toeloop and 3Toeloop, falls on the 3Axel and double-foots the 2Axel. Some of his spin p...

Canada's Nam Nguyen performed much better home than he did at Skate America Photo: Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images North America Guess who miscalculated the time difference between Lavac, Quebec, Canada and London, United Kingdom? Yep, yours truly. Long story short, the men's short programme is the first competition I'm commenting on because I tuned in for the pairs' about 10 minutes before it ended. Oh well, I'll watch that one after. Roman Sadovsky  is the first skater to go out. He puts a hand down on the 4Salchow and falls on the 3Axel. However, he also lands a 4Toeloop, which shows a lot of potential. He does finish behind the music this time. Score: 67.72 . Kevin Aymoz 's routine is so much fun! He skates to Horns by Brye Fox. Great idea to sync the spins to the softer parts of the song. His face isn't relaxed enough to interpret the music during the tougher elements, but he'll learn that in time. He over-rotates the 3Axel. Score: 78.83 . B...

The men's short programme saw a lot of mistakes, but also a return to top form from Europe's favourite skater. There are therefore great things expected from Spain's national champion tonight, but also a redeeming from Shoma Uno, who could have done better yesterday. If they're both at their best, the battle for the gold will be tough to win. Vincent Zhou  is the first to skate. He falls on the 4Flip and singles the 4Lutz, but still manages two other quads. His spins are also not very graceful - his leg is bent throughout the camel spin and his low spins need to be a bit tighter. His score: 156.09 . Overall: 222.21 . Romain Ponsart  skates to the same theme as Vincent, Moulin Rouge , but to a different selection of songs. Unfortunately, the mistakes are similar to those of the American. He steps outs of the 3Axel, doubles out of the 4Toeloop and singles the 3Axel. He gets 134.31  points. Overall: 198.12 . Javier Fernandez's performance in Grenoble is miles b...