World silver medalist Shoma Uno finished runner-up behind American Nathan Chen in the men's short program Thursday at the Grand Prix Final.

Uno earned 101.51 points to sit behind Chen, who took the lead with 103.32 points. Mikhail Kolyada (99.22) of Russia was third.

Uno opened his performance with a quadruple flip and cleanly executed a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination while skating to Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons: Winter."

However, he lost balance and fell when landing a triple axel in the latter half of his routine.

"It was a jump that I can make a clean landing," said the Nagoya native. "I tried to focus on my next moves rather than feeling frustrated."

"I put more strength than usual when I executed the jump because I thought I lacked force. Maybe that's why I landed at a different position than I usually do," Uno said.

"But I'm still satisfied with this routine and I want to perform a satisfactory program in the free competition too," Uno said.

The 19-year-old Uno is aiming for his first gold at the tournament, amid the absence of defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu. Uno finished third in 2015 and 2016.

Chen, who finished runner-up in last year's tournament, pulled off a clean performance. He started off with a quadruple lutz-triple toe loop combination and lost balance in his quad flip, but he managed to hold himself together.

Sochi Olympic and reigning world champion Hanyu has won four straight Grand Prix Finals since 2013. However, he missed out on his chance to defend the title this year, after pulling out from November's NHK Trophy due to an ankle injury.

In the pairs competition, Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot, competing for Germany, led after the shorts with 79.43 points. Russian Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov (78.83) followed, while Chinese Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were third.

Canadian Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir topped the ice dancing short program, while French pair Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron took second.

The Dec. 7-10 event features the top six skaters in each discipline. The men's free program and women's short program will be held on Friday.