World Champion Ilia Malinin Lands 6 Quad -Spring, Cruise to His Third Straight American Art Skating Title

Ilia Malinin lay down in the middle of the ice at the American art skating on Sunday when everyone else was in ovation.

He has that effect on people.

In another fantastic view of athletics, the reigning world champion landed six of his seven planned quad jumps – including Quad Axel, the jump that only Malinin has ever landed in competition – and ended with 333.31 points after his free skate to win its third consecutive National Championship in the Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Andrew Torgashev landed a couple of quads under his free skate and ended up in second place with 286.49 points, while Camden Pulkinen took advantage of a slurry free skate from Jimmy Ma to secure the bronze medal with 252.92 points.

Malinin tried to become the first skater ever to land seven pure quads in competition and he got close. He opened with Quad Flip, easily landed his Quad Axel and hit his Quad Lutz-the second hardest of Quads. But then his only Miscue came when Malinin fell on his Quad loop, and he beat the air in the middle of the routine as if he were muted over himself.

He landed three more quads, all of them led into other jumps, and finished it all with a crowd-pleasant backflip.

“It wasn’t the perfect program that I exactly wanted, but I think I gave a good, solid start to what works in this program,” said Malinin, who used citizens as clothing for the upcoming World Cups in Boston.

If it had been international competition, Malinin’s score would have almost matched Nathan Chen’s record of 335.30 points.

“I’m still not with my full potential yet, and there’s a much bigger limit, I assume I can go for,” Malinin said.

Malinin went into the free skating with a record margin for citizens – 19.14 points over everyone else in the field – after a sublime short program on Saturday, which was even a bit tame to his standards. The self-proclaimed “Quad Good” landed a quad flip and a Quad Lutz-Triple Toe Loop combination, but chose to skip his Quad Axel for a triple Axel instead.

Malinine was philosophical about it afterwards and said, “There is a pressure to try to do (Quad Axel) at any competition. People may want to see something bigger and better, but I want to make sure I’m consistent. “

It has not been a problem.

The 20-year-old from Fairfax, Virginia, has won eight consecutive competitions since a second place in the Grand Prix de France last year. This stretch of podium perfection included his second national title, two wins in the prestigious Grand Prix final, and a World Cup that Malinin will try to defend at home in March.

It is a race that caused MA to vault Malinin to the same category of greatness as Chen, the retired Olympic champion.

“I don’t even think of Ilia as a competition anymore because it’s not something I think I can achieve,” said Ma. “It’s just an honor to be friends and compete with two people who can be considered goats in their own way.”

The 23-year-old Torgashev, who was third on the Grand Prix de France, was so pumped about his performance to the symphonic suite “Scheherazade”, which got him a silver medal, which he said to step off the ice Sunday, “I …

The pulkin rounded the podium with another consecutive bronze medal of citizens.

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