Figure skater Cha earns personal best score in short program

Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan tops short program with 111.68 points

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Figure skater Cha Jun-hwan earned his personal best score 83.43 points in the men’s single short program at the Gangneung Ice Arena, Friday.

He renewed his personal best in the short program, a year after scoring his previous best 82.34 points at the International Skating Union Junior World Championships.

He finished 15th and made the cut for the free program that will take place on Saturday.

Figure skaters who earned scores within the top 24 of 30 competitors are allowed to perform in the long program.

Cha became the second South Korean male skater who made the cut for the free program in the Olympics, 16 years after Lee Gyu-hyun made it in the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, the United States.

Skating to Don Quixote Gypsy Dance, Cha performed a clean triple flip toe loop combination jump, which was followed by a flawless triple axel jump. His following jumps were clean. The teen skater finished the routine with a step sequence and combination spin. He raised his arms after the routine, showing he was satisfied with his performance.

Yzuru Hanyu of Japan finished first with 111.68, followed by Javier Fernandez of Spain and Shoma Unio of Japan.

He said he had a slew of challenges before the Olympics. He had a hip and ankle injury. He had the flu before the Olympics and his boots didn’t fit well. “All these factors added to his pre-Games pressure and the pre-Olympic days were maybe the toughest times that I have experienced,” he said. Cha said he practiced harder to overcome those challenges.

Cha drew attention from the public in December 2016 for winning a bronze medal at the International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix Final in Marseille, France. He is the first Korean male to win a medal at an ISU Junior Grand Prix Finals.