NAGOYA, Japan (AP) — Japan’s Mone Chiba emerged as the surprise leader in the women’s short program at the figure skating Grand Prix Final after several favorites stumbled on Friday.
Three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto and defending Grand Prix Final champion Amber Glenn made costly errors on their opening jumps and finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Skating last and realizing she had a golden opportunity to take the lead, Chiba appeared nervous at the start of her routine but settled down to land a triple flip-triple toe loop combination, a double axel and a triple lutz for 77.27 points.
World champion Alysa Liu of the United States was second with 75.79 followed by Ami Nakai of Japan on 73.91.
“I was very nervous at the start,” Chiba said. “But I was able to land all three ju

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