Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu reportedly said Olympic bronze medalist Denis Ten intentionally got in his way, which led to Hanyu falling during a World Championships practice session Wednesday, hours before the short program in Boston.
“I’ve watched the video, and I think that was probably intentional,” Hanyu told Japanese media, according to Agence France-Presse. “But I still shouldn’t have got angry at him — that was pointless.”
Hanyu and Ten were among skaters training on a practice rink near the competition venue of TD Garden, and with Hanyu’s short-program music playing, it meant that the Japanese had the right-of-way on the rink, as Icenetwork.com detailed the chain of events:
The Japanese Olympic champion turned to prepare for a triple axel when he saw Ten practicing a camel spin directly in his path. Hanyu yelled, changed his pattern to avoid Ten, and then launched into his axel and fell. While sitting on the ice, he punched the boards.
“Was that really necessary?” Hanyu yelled at Ten, according to Japan’s Kyodo News.
“I honestly didn’t notice it until someone was screaming at my back every time he was passing by,” Ten said, according to Icenetwork. “I don’t think there was an issue; we didn’t hit each other.”
Hanyu went on later that night to post the second-highest-scoring short program under a points system that’s been around for 11 years.
Ten, meanwhile, fell and finished 12th.
The free skate is Friday at 9 p.m. ET, live on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra.
