Duhamel, Radford lead pairs at NHK Trophy

Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Radford of Balmertown, Ont., earned 71.04 points in their short program skated to Elton John’s “Your Song”. “Our strength and training really showed today”.

The NHK Trophy begins on Friday with the pairs, men’s and ladies short programs.

Hanyu received 106.33 points to eclipse his own previous high of 101.45 at the Sochi Olympics.

China’s Jin Boyang and Hanyu’s countryman Takahito Mura sit in second and third place, respectively, though Hanyu has built a 10-point lead heading into tonight’s free program.

Elladj Balde of Pierrefonds, Que., was 11th.

The women’s short program, featuring three-time world champion Mao Asada and world silver medalist Satoko Miyahara, was held later Saturday. Asada fell on her signature triple Axel attempt and singled her planned triple Lutz.

Kaetlyn Osmond of Canada, Li Zijun of China, Alena Leonova of Russian Federation and Mirai Nagasu of the United States are also in Japan.

Skating to Chopin’s “Ballad No. 1”, Hanyu finished with a flourish, striking a matador’s pose as the music ended and pumping his fists before being greeted with a hug from coach Brian Orser after putting a disappointing recent runner-up finish in Canada firmly behind him.

The 20-year-old landed two clean quads, one in combination, and a triple Axel in front of a home crowd.

Reigning Olympic Champion Yuzuru Hanyu (JPN) headlines the Men’s event. Hanyu, who finished second at Skate Canada, needs to a podium finish to clinch a ticket to Barcelona, where he would be the two-time defending champion. “People might think “Hanyu is back” but I know I’ve still got room to improve”. “All of my jumps were good quality and I was able to do everything I practised”. Dornbush is seventh and Hochstein is eighth before tonight’s free program.