TOKYO: Reigning Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu and World bronze medallist Anna Pogorilaya of Russia took the early lead in the short programme at the NHK Trophy as they campaigned to qualify for this year's Grand Prix Final of figure skating.
Japan's Hanyu showed his clear supremacy with soaring jumps and dramatic steps in an act worthy of a whopping 103.89 points, creating a gap of close to 16 points between him and his closest rival Nathan Chen of the United States with 87.94.
The Sochi gold medallist opened his programme with a quadruple loop, which he landed off-balance.
But he more than made up for it with a clean quadruple Salchow-triple toe loop combination before nailing a dynamic triple axel.
A catchy version of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" helped nearly 6,000 devoted fans at the Makomanai Ice Arena in the northern city of Sapporo work themselves into a frenzy, before they showered Hanyu in flowers and threw him stuffed animals at the end of his performance.
But the defending NHK champion, who placed second in this year's Skate Canada, grimaced to show his display fell slightly short of what he'd hoped.
He needs to finish third or higher overall to automatically qualify for the Grand Prix Final, an annual elite competition which he has won the past three years.
"Because we are in Japan, I was honestly able to enjoy myself while performing this programme," Hanyu told reporters.
"As far as jumps, as you saw, it was not a big mistake, but I wanted to pull it off just a little bit better than that," he said. "So I want to correct that."
In the women's competition, Pogorilaya continued her superb year that also saw her win the Cup of Russia and claim bronze in both the World and European Championships.
The 18-year-old claimed 71.56 points after a triple lutz-triple toe loop combination and spins in a step sequence played to songs from the 1990s film "Scent of a Woman".
Her compatriot Maria Sotskova followed close behind with 69.96, while defending NHK Trophy champion and home favourite Satoko Miyahara of Japan settled for third with 64.20.
In the pairs component, Chinese team Cheng Peng/Yang Jin performed a comical, rhythmic programme to lead with 73.33, a hair above two-time and reigning world champions Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford of Canada with 72.95.
They are followed by China's Xuehan Wang/Lei Wang.
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