Shoma UNO (JPN) | Men Free Skating | GP Final 2023 | #GPFigure

Representing Japan, Shoma Uno, world champion, two times, second after the short program. He'll need a 1.82 to take the lead, to escape the free program to time-lapse in Shibuiko, in Shibuiko. Touch skating skill, but this morning in practice, he popped the quad loop into single with a fall. No such issue. Quad loop to start. Followed up with a quad flip. The second triple axel into single. Quad toe, triple toe. And another quad to the applause of his coach, Stéphane Lambiel. Changing the planned program content, and another triple axel, and later after the pop earlier in the program. It just makes simple three turns look beautifully elegant. Wow. Well, this young man adapted and adjusted his program to max the points knowing he needs it. Representing Japan. It's quite remarkable. Four quads. And isn't it interesting having heard Shoma in interviews be so open and honest about how this season he desires artistry, he desires storytelling, he desires to be not just a technical athlete, but ultimately still a competitor, and those deviations in the planned program content align with the desire that he's still a competitor wanting to, you know, still be the best. And interestingly, Yuma Kageyama had said about how Shoma has his idol as we see this opening quad loop, and Yuma beating Shoma motivated Shoma to say he wants to still be someone's idol, and that pushing him forward in training as we see the quad flip, quad rotation short as it was deemed at the NHK Trophy in Osaka, undoubtedly the best skating skills of all the men. How much can you bank on that when you're up against the technical prowess of Ilya Malinin yet to skate? Quad toe, comfortably done in combo with triple toe, and the other. What's interesting though with Shoma is that I'm not as aware of the quad content because it is more seamlessly interspersed within the choreography. That's one of the factors that make him two-time world champion, and can he go on and repeat as Grand Prix final champion, like some Nathan Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu have done before him? We'll find out, and the technical elements are simply part of the choreography with the skater. They don't separate out as technical and artistic, it's all woven and weaved beautifully together. It's interesting to say that this is a time violation for Shoma, he was over time on the combo spin at the end as he struggled to try and squeeze in the final features, and that will have had an impact, I think, on the composition and presentation because the spellbinding way he performs to this music was kind of quashed a little bit at the end when he ran over time, so components might not be as high as they otherwise might have been as he made those technical adjustments. Yeah, they're in the low to mid nines, his season's best 186, his personal best 204 for the free program, and this score is a 191.32, that's the season's best first in the free program with a total competition score of 297.34, just three points off the 300 point mark as he takes over the lead with one skater to come.