American Ilia Malinin produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple axel, in the men's free skate on Saturday to capture his first figure skating world title. Japan's Yuma Kagiyama finished second while two-time defending champion Shoma Uno had a disastrous performance.
The 19-year-old Malinin, nicknamed the "Quad God," who is the only skater to land a quadruple axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad axel and including a quadruple lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe.
He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn 227.79 for the free skate for a championship total of 333.76 points.