Overview
- Yuma Kagiyama delivered a clean, season‑best 108.77 in Nagoya with a quad toe–triple toe, quad salchow, and triple axel to lead the men's short program.
- Shun Sato sits second on 98.06, while Ilia Malinin is third with 94.05 after stepping out of a quad axel–triple toe attempt and losing points on a quad lutz–triple toe.
- Malinin said the quad axel combo was his first try in competition and described the Final as a place to try new things, indicating he may choose different content for the Olympics.
- He added that he still plans to include a quad axel in the free skate, though he will decide based on how he feels on the day.
- Madison Chock and Evan Bates lead the rhythm dance with 88.74, and pairs leaders Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara posted 77.32, with finals to be decided in the upcoming free skates.