Cha Jun-hwan, the symbol of Korean figure skating, announced a pleasant start by placing 2nd in the ISU Senior Grand Prix short program for the first time of the season.



Cha Jun-hwan scored a total of 94.44 points in the Skate America Men's Single Short Program in the first round of the 2022-2023 ISU Senior Grand Prix held in Norwood, Massachusetts, USA on the 22nd (Korean time) with a technical score (TES) of 49.70 and an artistic score (PCS) of 44.74. and placed 2nd out of 12.



The gap with No. 1 Gao Miura (Japan), who got 94.96 points, is only 0.52 points, so it is worth aiming for a comeback in free skating.



Jun-hwan Cha's 94.44 points are not short of the personal short high of 99.51 points set at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February this year, but this season's personal best score surpassed the 91.06 points recorded at this month's ISU Challenger Series Finlandia Trophy.



Prior to participating in the Grand Prix series, Cha Jun-hwan, who improved his condition by winning one gold medal and one silver medal in the lower challenger series, showed a light movement that day.



Starting acting to the medley of Michael Jackson's dance song, Cha Jun-hwan perfectly jumped his first jump task, the quadruple salcho.



Having earned a base score of 9.70 and a bonus of 3.74 points in this jump alone, his second jump task was to fly neatly with a triple lutz-triple loop combination jump instead of a quadruple toe loop continuous jump.



Jun-hwan Cha, who had a smooth connection to the highest level of the flying camel spin that followed, had an unstable landing on the jump triple axel in the second half, where an additional 10% was added, so his performance score (GOE) was reduced by 2.29.



However, Cha Jun-hwan, who quickly gained control, handled the change foot seat spin, step sequence, and change foot combination spin all at level 4, the highest difficulty.



Ilya Malinin of the United States, who drew attention by successfully jumping the world's first quadruple axel (four rounds in the air), was in fourth place (86.08 points).



In the first jump, the quadruple lutz-triple toe loop consecutive jump, the quadruple jump was judged as a quarter landing (when the number of jump rotations is insufficient at the level of 90 degrees) ) 4.75 points were deducted.



The men's single free skating will be held on the 23rd at 10 am Korean time.



Cha Jun-hwan, who will participate in the first tournament and the fifth tournament to be held in Sapporo, Japan in mid-November, is aiming for a place in the grand prix final stage along with winning two prizes.



(Photo=ISU Twitter capture, Yonhap News)