Chen lands five quads to win US men's figure skating title
Nathan Chen landed five quadruple jumps in a near perfect free skate programme Sunday to capture the men's singles title at the US National Figure Skating Championships. The 17-year-old Chen became the youngest US men's champion in more than five decades and the first in the world to land five clean quads during his free skate to the music of "The Polovtsian Dances". "That was an amazing performance. I'm really happy with what I did," Chen said. "Component-wise, I kind of faltered a little bit. That stuff happens when you're pushing these secondary elements to the max. It's definitely something that I'm looking forward to working on improve for worlds." He finished with a total score of 318.47 to place ahead of runner-up Vincent Zhou, who had a score of 263.03. Jason Brown took the bronze. Chen delivered an epic performance that not only tagged him as a favourite at the upcoming World Championships in March but also a skater to watch at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. "The US is back on the map, on the world stage," Chen said. "With us three, we'll push the US back to where they should be." Last year's champion Adam Rippon was unable to compete at the Spirit Center arena in Kansas City because of an injury. Rippon broke a bone in his left foot during a training session two weeks ago. He is expected to be sidelined for up to three months. The 2016 silver medallist Max Aaron placed ninth.
