GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) — Somewhere in the midst of hundreds of cascading Winnie The Pooh dolls stood Yuzuru Hanyu.
Oh yeah, there he was, at center ice, bowing to a huge ovation for an Olympic-record short program.
The defending Olympic champion from Japan scored 111.68 points Friday, building more than a four-point lead over Spain's Javier Fernandez, who happens to share the same coach, two-time Olympic medalist Brian Orser.
Hanyu's countryman Shoma Uno was third at 104.17, followed by China's Jin Boyang at 103.32.
Hanyu missed two months of training with an ankle injury and only recently returned to full practices.