Figure skating-Malinin surges into lead with thrilling short programme

MILAN, Feb 10 : American figure skater Ilia Malinin delivered his best performance yet of the Milano Cortina Games on Tuesday, packing two quads and an audacious backflip into an electrifying men's short programme to surge into the lead.

Malinin was rewarded with a score of 108.16, more than five points ahead of his closest rival Yuma Kagiyama of Japan (103.07), with Frenchman Adam Siao Him Fa (102.55) third.

"Quad God" Malinin is the overwhelming gold medal favourite but did not show his full potential in two performances in the team event, but was still good enough to send the U.S. to the top of the podium.

It was a different story on Tuesday, where he enjoyed the support of the boisterous American fans on hand to witness his unmatched technical firepower.

Malinin had planned to open with a quadruple Axel, a jump only he has ever landed in competition, but instead did a quadruple flip and then earned high marks for a quadruple Lutz-triple toe loop combination.

He will return to Milano Ice Skating Arena for the free skate on Friday, which will decide the medals.