Jin Boyang beats Shoma Uno at Four Continents Championships

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Jin Boyang of China jumped his way to gold at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in the last international competition before the PyeongChang Olympics.

Jin, who missed last month’s Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final with foot injuries, received 200.78 points in Saturday’s free skate for a total of 300.95.

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“After I withdrew from the Grand Prix Final I worked really hard on my recovery and I trained the hardest I ever have,” Jin said. “Thanks to that I was able to give an almost perfect performance today. The result of this competition gives me confidence to challenge myself to give two perfect performances in Pyeongchang.”

Jin’s routine included a huge quadruple lutz, quad salchow, a quad toe-double toe and a quad toe. The only glitch came when the two-time World bronze medalist stumbled on a triple lutz-double toe combination.

Japan’s Shoma Uno, first after the short program, scored 197.45 points and totaled 297.94 to slip to second.

“Unfortunately I missed my quad flip,” Uno said. “But the good part was that I kept calm and finished the program nicely. I didn’t do my best today, but I still think the practice was not a waste. I would like to be more confident and take it to the next competition.”

Uno and Jin took second and third, respectively, at last season’s world championships. None of the other Olympic medal contenders — Yuzuru Hanyu, Nathan Chen and Javier Fernandez — were in this week’s field.

Jason Brown, who missed the U.S. Olympic team, was third with a season’s best 179.44 points for 269.22 overall.

Brown’s routine featured a triple axel-triple toe and five more clean triples.

“Nothing was easy about this year,” Brown said. “I felt that I was chasing something – in this case it was kind of chasing the quad. That wasn’t who I am.”