So here is the king
At the age of 19, the Olympic champion
How aware is he of how good Machida was?
You can be convinced he'll give it his best shot
He looked "crestfallen" with what happened in the short
But he has got... a slither of a chance, I wouldn't say it's any better than that
And he has to be foot-perfect
He is an amazing skater
Here in Japan, he is the much-adored Yuzuru Hanyu
Two quads, here's the first
This is the salchow
Great start!
Wow, how he hung on to that...!
Here's the toe loop
Perfect!
Lovely running edge coming out of it
Yeah, he looks focussed, doesn't he?
Man on a mission
Triple flip
Woah! Triple axel triple toe loop
He's still in there "with a shout"
Yeah, he is fighting for everything
Triple axel
Triple loop
Just 2 jump passes to go, consisting of 3 triple jumps
Oh no... yes...
That should be triple sal(chow), how he did that, I have no idea!
And he's landed the final lutz
It's going to be mighty close!
Yeah this is all going to come down to the GOE's, the grade of execution, from the judges
A phenominal effort!
He may just have done it!
But remember, he is 7 points behind going into the free
In all probability, he has beaten Machida on the free program
Ooh!
That was a quite exceptional performance, given everything that's been going on
And don't they love it!
Are(n't) they glad they paid the "big bucks" to be here!
It's going to be so close
Now that 101 at the moment, that could go down, because some of those landings he had to fight for
If the judges give him negative GoE's, that number will drop as they review the elements
It's going to be mighty close, but I'll tell you what, he could not have given any more
If they give Hanyu a better 2nd score, the component score...
...that could do it for him
But you can see that number coming down all the time
It is going to be mighty close
It is
But all credit to the young man
Yeah, he gave it his "best shot"
He needs 191.02, just to put that into perspective
And that is a mighty high score, he's got a best 193.41
But he couldn't have... he honestly couldn't have tried any harder, he "left it all out there"
Here's a look at that quadruple salchow at the beginning of the program
Cleanly landed, and how he stayed on his feet...?!
I mean, that is a measure of the skill of this guy
Look at it! The angle of his skate there!
A lesser man would have been on his right ear!
There's the quad toe
That was a much better jump
He has that wonderful knee bend, which gives him time to get the free leg back
So much charisma
Fantastic on the spins, the levels all seem to be there
This one's too close to call
He's going to win the free
But can he possibly get that margin back?
Machida is 35 points clear at the moment, clear of Kovtun
282.26 is the mark he's aiming for
His best mark so far in the grand prix final, 293.25
but he didn't have the short program that he had a couple of days ago
That's why he's had to play "catch up"
But... he dug so deep
He did indeed
I've got a funny feeling he might do it, you know
Me too
The mark is going down, that technical score though
It is going to be frighteningly close
But I think there's enough there, I think they'll give it to him on the component score
I think he's going to do it
Remember there's still Fernandez to come, but has he got it in him?
I don't think so
So I think if he's in the lead now, he takes the title
Yeah, I would say
One thing's for sure, it's going to be a Japan 1-2 at this stage
They're taking their time, and rightly so
But what a competitor he is
Here we go...
YES!
He can't believe it
By three tenths (0.3) of a mark Chris!
Three tenths of a mark!
Incredible
Absolutely incredible
Well we wondered if he had it in him
We shouldn't have doubted him
He's got to wait, but surely he's the champion now