Japanese Oda continues good form to lead men's short program at figure skating GP

Japanese skater Nobunari Oda continued his good form to lead the men's short program at Cup of China ISU Grand Prix of figure skating here on Friday.

Oda, winner of the French Grand Prix earlier this month, posted a fair score of 83.35 points for his almost perfect spins and light-footed jumps to the music of Totentanz by M. Mrvica, took a slim lead for second-placed Sergei Voronov of Russia, who finished with 81.40.

Evan Lysacek of the United States, world champion in 2009, finished a disappointing third place with 80.80.

The 2009 European silver medalist Samuel Contesti of Italy took the fourth with 72.08, while Yang Chao of China finished fifth with 65.10. Another Chinese skater Xu Ming ranked 10th with 60.12 at the 12-man competition.

"I am very satisfied with my performance today," said Oda, who won the 2005 World Junior Figure Skating Championships, becoming just the second Japanese man in history to win that competition, after Daisuke Takahashi.

"I wasn't tired in France, but I felt tired here today. I made a few mistakes, but I think I will improve a lot in tomorrow's free skating."

"I want to skate very well this season, so I pushed myself really hard and it did work," added Oda, who is known for being able to get very high scores without performing a quadruple jump because he has such good skating skills.

It may not be a good day for Evan Lysaced, as the world champion only settled for a third place in the short program.

"For the most part I was satisfied," said the 24-year-old, who became the first American man since Todd Eldredge in 1996 to win the world title. "This is my first competition of the season, and I felt quite nervous. It definitely revitalized my passion and gave me much confidence."

"It was a pretty new program and I really like the music and the costume. I hope it will be a good start for the season." He said.

Lysaced was a member of the U.S. Olympic team at the 2006 Winter Olympics, where he placed fourth in the men's event.

The yearly Cup of China ISU GP of figure skating was held on Oct. 30 to Nov. 1. Skaters will compete for a global prize money of 180,000 U.S. dollars per individual event and receive points according to their placements.

Top six skaters/couples of the series will proceed to the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final in Tokyo, Japan.

Source: Xinhua