NAGOYA, Japan—World figure skating champion Daisuke Takahashi of Japan has won the season-opening NHK Trophy, finishing comfortably ahead of American Jeremy Abbott after the free skate Sunday.
Takahashi, who led after the short program, opened with a quadruple toeloop and survived a late fall on his triple lutz, double toeloop to finish with 234.79 points.
Abbott skated a clean program to La Vita e Bella but didn’t attempt a quad. He singled a triple axel midway through his routine and singled the second half of a triple lutz, double toeloop combination to finish with 218.19 points.
France’s Florent Amodio was third with 213.77 points. Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, the world junior champion, also hit a quad toeloop on his opening element and finished fourth with 207.72 points.
