European champion Lukas Britschgi's short program at the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston did not go according to plan. He has to settle for 11th place.
27.03.2025, 22:16
27.03.2025, 22:52
SDA
Britschgi landed incorrectly after both the quadruple toeloop/triple toeloop combination and the triple Axel and was therefore deducted points for these two elements. With 85.83 points, the 27-year-old from Schaffhausen remained well below his best performance of 93.41 points achieved at the last World Championships.
Britschgi had already fallen short of his potential in the short program at the European Championships in January. He then performed a fantastic free skate, moving up from 8th to 1st place. Therefore, there is still a lot possible in Boston, even if Britschgi cannot look back on optimal preparation. His best World Championship ranking was 6th place a year ago. He is 5.43 points behind Japan's Shun Sato, who was ranked fifth after the first part of the competition, and 8.94 points behind him in third place. Either way, Britschgi can plan for next year's Winter Olympics; 24 quota places will be awarded in the men's event in Boston.
The American defending champion Ilia Malinin is in the lead, much to the delight of the crowd. The 20-year-old ran a personal best of 110.41 points. Only Japan's Yuma Kagiyama (107.09) was able to keep up. The two will probably decide the gold medal between themselves on Sunday night.
