Sawt Falasteen - Uno top as Japanese trio battle for gold at world figure skating championships

In the absence of Olympic and reigning world champion Nathan Chen of the United States and Japanese star Yuzuru Hanyu through injury, Uno bettered his own personal best score by four points as the 24-year-old chases a first gold after two runner-up spots at the worlds.

The Olympic bronze medallist scored 109.63 points with compatriot Yuma Kagiyama, silver medallist at the recent Beijing Games, achieving 105.69 points and Kazuki Tomono posting 101.12 heading into Saturday's free skating final.

"I managed to pull off my performance exactly as I always do in practice," said Uno, a three-time Olympic medallist, who is coached by former Swiss world champion Stephane Lambiel.

Skating to the music of two Oboe Concertos, Uno opened with a quadruple flip and followed up with a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop, triple Axel and level four spins and footwork, as he looks to better his two silver medals behind Hanyu in 2017 and Chen in 2018.

Kagiyama showed nerves after his surprise Olympic silver medal, dropping points for with a shaky triple Axel in his his skate to Michael Buble's 'When You're Smiling'.

"Unlike the Olympics, I was a bit nervous," admitted the 18-year-old.

Tomono, a last-minute replacement for Kao Miura, broke the 100-points barrier for the first time in his career.

American teenager Ilia Malinin, 17, competing in his first world championships is fourth, after improving his personal best score by more than 20 points, with 100.16.

Russian skaters have been banned from competing at worlds following their country's invasion of Ukraine.

Ivan Shmuratko, a native of Kyiv, and the only skater from Ukraine competing at worlds qualified for the free programme in 22nd position.

If he took three days to reach Montpellier, "the word difficult does not describe any situation here," said 20-year-old Shmuratko who instead of the usual costume wore the blue T-shirt of the Ukrainian team.

"Skating is not difficult, nor coming here for the worlds. What is difficult is when your loved ones die under the bombs, it is to be in Ukraine. That is difficult. Everything else ..."

"It's important for Ukraine to have athletes who represent it on the international scene," he added.

The competition continues later Thursday with the pairs free skating final.

A.AlHaj--SF-PST