Photo/Illutration Shoma Uno of Japan performs in the men’s short program at the Figure Skating World Championships in Montpellier, south of France, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo)

Olympic bronze medalist Shoma Uno edged silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama to lead a Japanese sweep of the first three spots after the men’s short program at the figure skating world championships on Thursday in Montpellier, France.

Uno scored 109.63 points for his program, set to a Vivaldi concerto, for the second-highest score in the world this season behind Olympic champion Nathan Chen’s program in Beijing. Kagiyama scored 105.69 points while Kazuki Tomono edged 17-year-old American phenom Ilia Malinin by less than a point for third place.

“It is really difficult to put all the power I have in my training into the competition,” Uno said, “so I’m glad it worked out.”

The competition continues later Thursday with the pairs free skate, which will decide the first medals at this year’s world championships. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier have a slim lead over American teammates Ashley Cain-Gribble and Tim LeDuc, with Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan sitting in third place.

The race for world medals is wide open after Chen, the three-time reigning champion, was forced to withdraw last week with an injury sustained in training. Yuzuru Hanyu, the two-time world champion, also withdrew because of an injury.

Uno twice won the silver medal at the world championships, but he’s never climbed to the top step of the podium. He’ll try to finish off a remarkable career resurgence when he performs his entertaining “Bolero” free skate on Saturday.

“In the past three years I have changed so much,” he said. “Three years ago I was skating toward the end of my career, but now I am skating for the future. I am amid the journey of my growth, so I want to show that.”

Malinin dominated the Junior Grand Prix series this season and was second at the U.S. championships in January, where he unleashed some of the incredible jumps that earned him the nickname “QuadGod.” But he was somewhat controversially left off the American team for Beijing in favor of veteran Jason Brown, who went on to finish in a respectable sixth place.

Now, the son of Russian-born Uzbekistani skaters Tatiana Malinina and Roman Skorniakov is trying to stamp himself as the heir apparent to Chen in American figure skating and one of the favorites for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and Cortina.

Malinin’s teammate, Vincent Zhou, was sixth after the short program. But given what he went through during the Olympics, it felt like a win. Zhou performed poorly in the team competition, when the U.S. went on to win the silver medal but tested positive for COVID-19 before he was able to take the ice for the men’s event.

“The short program was definitely a great moment for me, all the stuff I’ve been through,” he said. “Obviously I want to skate well in the free skate. I’ve been skating well in practice. But simply being here is a big win for me, and I’m doing my best to enjoy myself out there, enjoy my time here in France and make the best of it.”

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