Sawt Falasteen - Malinin upstaged as Japan keep pressure on USA in skating team event

The 21-year-old Malinin, a two-time world champion, was below his best in his medley from "The Lost Crown" video game, scoring 10.67 points less than Kagiyama, the Olympic individual silver medallist from Beijing 2022.

Malinin, the self-styled 'Quad God', opened with a quad flip, but followed with a hesitant triple Axel and underrotated his quad Lutz.

An acrobatic closing section featuring a backflip, aerial twist and a one-armed cartwheel did not impress the judges enough as he scored 98.00 -- over 12 points off the personal best he achieved at last year's worlds.

Kagiyama, 22, hit two quadruple jumps in his vibrant crowd-pleasing routine to a remix of "I Wish" which scored him 108.67 points just slightly off his season's best.

But Malinin was in a similar position at this season's Grand Prix final when he trailed Kagiyama, before sweeping aside his rivals in the free skating final.

The USA have 34 points but Japan are just one point behind on 33. Hosts Italy qualified in third on 28 followed by Canada (27) and Georgia (25).

France, South Korea, China, Great Britain and Poland were eliminated.

The top five teams now fight it out in the free skating finals which continue with the ice dance later on Saturday.

The pairs, men's and women's free skates take place on Sunday.

The USA's world champion ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates take to the ice later Saturday for the free dance a day after leading the way in the rhythm dance.

The pair have won a medal in every team event since it was introduced in 2014.

Japan took team silver four years ago in Beijing.

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST