U.S. champion Nathan Chen opened the Grand Prix season by beating Olympic gold-medal favorite Yuzuru Hanyu.
Chen, 18, bettered Hanyu at Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, totaling 293.79 points to win by 3.02 over the Japanese megastar.
Chen landed four quadruple jumps in a strong but imperfect free skate for his first Grand Prix title in his second senior international season. He had a 5.69-point lead from Friday’s short progmra.
Hanyu, the reigning Olympic and world champion, has never won his opening Grand Prix start in eight tries.
He did three quadruple jumps in Saturday’s free skate rather than the planned five, but did not fall as he did in the short program.