Shoma Uno led the way Thursday as Japanese figure skaters swept the top three men's short program spots at the world championships.
Uno, the bronze medalist at last month's Beijing Olympics, flashed a pair of quad jumps before finishing with a stunning triple axel en route to a career-best 109.63 points at the Sud de France Arena, outside Montpellier, France.
Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama was second, while compatriot Kazuki Tomono was third.
"I hadn't been able to skate the kind of short program I could be proud of. But I always felt that if I could just skate a really clean one, I could get a super score, and I did," Uno said.
Kagiyama, last year's world silver medalist, stepped out of a triple axel in an energetic crowd-pleasing program that scored 105.69, less than three shy of his personal best from the Beijing Games to place second.
"Coming right after the Olympics, I came here and was able to perform without any nerves at all and put things together well," Kagiyama said.
Tomono, making his first appearance at the worlds since finishing fifth in 2018, scored a personal-best 101.12.
"This all feels very strange to me," Tomono said. "My first task will be to put this behind me, and go out and do well in the free skate, by which I mean skate so that I'll leave here with no regrets."
The men’s free skate begins at 5:00 a.m. JST on Sunday.