TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Caroline Green and Michael Parsons of the United States won the ice dance title at the Four Continents figure skating championships on Friday, while Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea took the lead in the men’s short program.
Green and Parsons had the lead from Thursday’s rhythm dance and extended it in the free dance to score a total 200.59 points for what was the biggest win of their career together.
That continued a run of four consecutive U.S. ice dance gold medals at Four Continents since 2018. There was no competition last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Daisuke Takahashi, a former world champion in men’s singles skating, won his first major medal in ice dance with partner Kana Muramoto, taking the silver on 181.91. Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko of the U.S. were third on 175.67.
Cha is on track to win South Korea’s first Four Continents men’s medal after he landed a quadruple salchow on his way to scoring 98.96 to take first place in the short program ahead of two Japanese skaters. Kazuki Tomono landed two quads and is second on 97.10. Kao Miura is third on 88.37.
Cha is one of the few competitors at Four Continents who is expected to skate at next month’s Olympics. With the coronavirus a concern for teams, Canada, the U.S. and Japan have all sent skaters who did not make their Olympic rosters.
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