Fernandez defends world title

Harris sat 21st after the short program but slipped a place in his return to the ice 48 hours later to finish with a score of 190.42.

But there was no doubting who the star of the show was as Fernandez leapfrogged Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan with a new personal best score in the free skate.

Fernandez, a four-time European champion, scored 216.41 – bettering his previous best free skate by 15 points – to finish with a total of 314.93 to successfully defend the title he won in Shanghai last year.

That meant Olympic champion Hanyu had to settle for a second successive silver with a score of 295.17, while Boyang Jin claimed bronze, a first World Championship medal for a Chinese man.

Meanwhile, the pairs competition got underway with Wenjing Sui and Cong Han of China leading the way after the short program.

The 2015 World silver medallists scored a personal best of 80.85 points to lead ahead of Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, with Russians Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov currently ranked third.

Sportsbeat 2016