Defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu made two mistakes in his jumps Friday to finish second behind rival Nathan Chen in the men's short program of the Rostelecom Cup, the first event of this winter's Grand Prix figure skating series.
Hanyu, last up in the 12-man field, underrotated his first jump -- the quadruple loop -- and slightly lost balance after a poor landing, before putting both hands on the ice following his quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination later in the routine to earn 94.85 points at Megasport Sport Palace.
Up-and-coming Chen, who beat Hanyu at last season's Four Continents Championships, received 100.54 for a cleanly executed high-difficulty program that featured a quad lutz-triple toe loop combo and a quad flip. Russia's Dmitri Aliev sits in third at 88.77.
"There were many parts that were obviously bad but I think I was able to overcome the challenge of executing all my jumps without missing the right timing," said Hanyu, competing in his second meet of the season.
"I think I was able to put my routine together earlier than usual, and it's a great improvement that I didn't miss performing any elements in the short program," said the 22-year-old Japanese who has yet to win at his first Grand Prix meet the past seven seasons.
Hanyu has upgraded the difficulty of his programs from last month's Autumn Classic in Canada, where he renewed his own record score in the short but struggled with a shaky free skate to finish runner-up.
In Canada, he had opened his short routine with the quad salchow instead of the quad loop due to pain in his right knee.
The two-time world champion, seeking to win his fifth straight Grand Prix final and defend his Olympic title next February in Pyeongchang, South Korea, plans to include a quad lutz in his routine for the first time in Saturday's free program.
"It's just one jump, one element within the whole program," he noted, adding that he hopes to do everything he can from start to finish so that he can catch Chen.
The 18-year-old American, silver medalist at last winter's Grand Prix final, is the only skater who has landed five types of quad jumps in competition and plans to include all of them in Saturday's free skate.
Grand Prix series events are held in six countries -- Russia, Canada, China, Japan, France and the United States -- through November, with the top six overall finishers in each of four disciplines advancing to the Grand Prix final in Nagoya, central Japan, in December.
