(Olympics) Cha Jun-hwan in 6th after men's singles short program

MILAN, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- Cha Jun-hwan ranked sixth after the men's singles short program in figure skating at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Tuesday with his best score of the season.

Cha scored 92.72 points at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan, besting his previous season high by 1.12 points.

Ilia Malinin of the United States topped the short program with 108.16 points, and Yuma Kagiyama of Japan was next with 103.07 points.

In the short program for the team event last Saturday, Cha scored 83.53 points after a botched takeoff for a triple axel.

This time, he landed the jump cleanly, as well as all the other jumps in his program, set to "Rain, In Your Black Eyes" by Ezio Bosso.

A clean quadruple salchow set the tone and Cha followed up with a flawless triple lutz-triple loop combination. Cha also earned high marks for his spins and step sequence.

Cha earned 50.08 points in the technical element score (TES), based on his execution of jumps and spins, and another 42.64 points in the program component score (PCS), which looks at skaters' artistry and choreography.

The one other South Korean in action, Kim Hyun-gyeom, scored 69.30 points to rank 26th and miss the cut for the free skate scheduled for Friday. Kim, 19, failed to land his triple axel cleanly and received only 37.92 points in the TES and another 32.38 points in the PCS.

The top 24 out of 29 skaters qualified for the long program.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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