Figure Skating: Teenager Ilia Malinin tops men's short program at ISU Grand Prix final

American teenager Ilia Malinin came first in the men's short programme at the Grand Prix Final in Beijing on Thursday, beating reigning Japanese world champion Shoma Uno by a whisker.The 19-year-old Malinin scored 106.9, just 0.88 points above second-place Uno, to put him in the lead for the men's competition.

Malinin last year became the first skater to land the complex quadruple axel in competition, and went off script on Thursday by opening with the signature jump.

It was a first in the short programme's history that prompted screams from the adoring crowd. "I came here to surprise everyone," Malinin, who has earned the nickname "QuadGod", said after the competition according to skating news site Golden Skate. "Hearing the audience go crazy after I landed it was a great feeling." Uno's second-place score of 106.02 was a personal season best.

His compatriot and Olympic silver medallist Yuma Kagiyama came in third with a 103.72. Frenchman Adam Siao Him Fa, the current European Champion, appeared to lose momentum after a series of wins over the course of the season at earlier Grand Prix competitions.

Siao Him Fa missed his first jump and scored 88.36, coming in sixth on Thursday despite an otherwise technically excellent routine. Newcomers Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin topped the pairs short programme earlier in the day.

The pair representing Germany, who came in first at this season's Grand Prix Finland and the NHK Trophy, scored 72.56 points on Thursday at their first Grand Prix Final after a technically challenging routine.

Hase and Volodin wowed the crowd in Beijing with their fluid movements and smoothly executed lifts set to "Stay" by Rihanna and Mikky Ekko.

"We didn't expect a skate like today," Hase said according to Golden Skate, explaining that Volodin had been ill recently. "But we wanted to try because it's a (Grand Prix) final," Hase said.

The German Hase and Russian Volodin beat Canada rivals Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps, who came in second with 71.22 points.

Deschamps and Stellato-Dudek, who at 40 was the oldest athlete on Thursday, had won gold at Skate Canada and Cup of China.

Thursday's pairs are set to compete in the longer free skate event on Friday that will determine their final Grand Prix ranking, while the solo skaters will face off at the men's free skate competition on Saturday.