Coming into today, Canadian silver medalist Kevin Reynolds had medaled only once in his six seasons. And he leaves the 2013 Four Continents Championships with the biggest win of his career, and the biggest upset in men's skating in recent memory. While the favorites faltered, Reynolds delivered a superb free skate that included three quads to take the gold in a stunning conclusion to the men's competition.
Men's free: Play-by-play
It was less than a month ago when Reynolds made some waves at home by pushing teammate and World champion Patrick Chan at Canadian Nationals. While Chan still won easily, Reynolds took silver with a margin between him and Chan that was as close as anyone has been able to get at Canadians in recent years. In Osaka this week, Reynolds brought that momentum and skated a great free skate that catapulted him over the field for the gold.
Reynolds hit a quad salchow, two quad toes, and six triples to win the free skate and move up from sixth after the short program to capture the title. He and European champion Javier Fernandez are the only skaters this season to have landed three clean quads in one program. With this win, Reynolds has inserted himself into the conversation for the podium at the World Championships next month.
Newly-crowned Japanese champion Yuzuru Hanyu had a surprisingly low-energy free skate to finish with the silver. He opened with a beautiful quad toe but made errors that added up in lost base value points. With one quad and five triples landed, Hanyu scored a 246.38 overall, dropping from first to second overall.
World junior champion Han Yan recovered from a rough tumble on his quad toe to hit seven clean triples to win the bronze in only his second senior competition internationally. He just edged out U.S. champion Max Aaron, who moved up from tenth with a strong free skate that included two quad salchows to finish fourth. Aaron's teammates, Richard Dornbush and Ross Miner, finished in fifth and ninth place, respectively.
Fourth after the short program, former World champion Daisuke Takahashi had one of the worst showings in his career, dropping to seventh after only cleanly landing three triples. He had errors on his five most difficult jumps, underrotations on both quad toes, a turn out of his first triple axel, a fall on his second axel, and a step out on an underrotated triple lutz.
MEN (final standings)
1. Kevin Reynolds CAN - 250.55
2. Yuzuru Hanyu JPN - 246.38
3. Han Yan CHN - 235.22
4. Max Aaron USA - 234.65
5. Richard Dornbush USA - 234.04
6. Nan Song CHN - 228.46
7. Daisuke Takahashi JPN - 222.77
8. Takahito Mura JPN - 218.08
9. Ross Miner USA - 214.36
10. Andrei Rogozine CAN - 201.99
11. Misha Ge UZB - 201.71
12. Denis Ten KAZ - 197.26
13. Yi Wang CHN - 195.01
14. Christopher Caluza PHI - 186.79
15. Abzal Rakimgaliev KAZ - 185.81
16. Michael Christian Martinez PHI - 178.08
17. June Hyoung Lee KOR - 176.39
18. Elladj Balde CAN - 176.33
19. Jin Seo Kim KOR - 171.01
20. Min-Seok Kim KOR - 137.63
21. Brendan Kerry AUS - 134.26
22. Jordan Ju TPE - 121.11
23. David Kranjec AUS - 115.82
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