Convincing World Championship performance by Lukas Britschgi

Lukas Britschgi clenched his fists when he saw his points total after the first part of the competition. With 88.30, he improved his season's best performance by 4.14 points, even though the 2025 European champion was only able to combine the quadruple toeloop with a double toeloop - his best mark is 93.41 points. It was the only blemish on his performance, which showed the joy with which he skated.

At the Olympic Games in Milan (14th) as well as at the European Championships (4th) before that, Britschgi had not performed to his liking. Nevertheless, the 28-year-old from Schaffhausen went to the World Championships with a very good feeling; he felt physically and mentally ready. Now he has received confirmation of this. This gives hope for the freestyle on Saturday. Britschgi's best World Championship ranking is 6th place two years ago.

The American Ilia Malinin, who produced a breathtaking performance with the quadruple flip/triple toeloop combination as the highlight, is the lone skater at the top. With 111.29 points, he fell just short of the highest score ever achieved in a short program (113.97), set by his compatriot Nathan Chen four years ago.

Malinin's lead over second-placed Frenchman Adam Siao Him Fa (101.85), who also went clear, is 9.44 points. The course is therefore set for a third World Championship title in a row. However, Malinin has been warned: at the Olympic Games he also started the free skating competition in first place, but then nothing went right. He dropped back to 8th place and failed to win for the first time since November 2023.

Vouillamoz/Bouvart with best performance to 10th place

In the pairs competition, the Swiss duo Oxana Vouillamoz/Tom Bouvart reached new heights. The Valais native and the Frenchman performed an excellent free skate, which was rewarded with 124.44 points. In doing so, they improved on their best performance set in 5th place at the European Championships in January by almost four points.

Thanks to this fantastic performance, Vouillamoz/Bouvart overtook six pairs ranked ahead of them after the short program and finished the competition in 10th place with a new personal best of 184.56 points.

In the absence of the Japanese Olympic champions Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara, the German pairing Minerva Hase/Nikita Volodin secured the World Championship title with a superior score of 228.33 points. The Olympic bronze medallists turned the tables compared to the European Championships and this time distanced the second-placed European champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava from Georgia by almost ten points. The podium was completed by the Canadian duo Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud.