SEOUL, South Korea, — Two-time Olympic gold medallist Yuzuru Hanyu dominated the men's short program on Friday in the Four Continents figure skating competition, breaking his personal best and setting a new world record score.

The Japanese figure skating star, who won the Skate Canada crown in late October, smashed 111.82 points with no others reaching the 100-point mark in Seoul, where the free program will be held on Sunday.

With the new world record score Hanyu also beat his personal best of 110.53 set at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup.

Boyang Jin of China came second with 95.83 points and the United States' Jason Brown was in third with 94.71.

Hanyu opened his performance to Chopin's Ballade No.1 with a flawless quadruple salchow.

He then nailed a stunning quad toe-loop triple toe-loop combination and a clean triple axel, prompting frenzied fans to shower him with Winnie the Pooh bears — Hanyu is apparently a fan of the A. A. Milne character — at the end of the performance.

The Japanese star is bidding to become the first male skater to complete the Super Slam of the junior world title, world title, Olympic gold, Grand Prix Final and continental championship.

Hanyu is to skate to Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi's "Seimei" for his free skate on Sunday — the same music that served him so successfully at the Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea in 2018.

Earlier Friday US champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the gold medal in ice dancing.

Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier won the silver while overnight leaders Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue of the US settled for the bronze.

Four Continents features top skaters from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

French skating chief puts

presidency on the line

The under-fire president of France's ice skating federation has called a meeting on Saturday at which he could be dethroned over claims of rape against a former national coach, several sources said Friday.

Long-time federation head Didier Gailhaguet has rebuffed calls from France's sports minister to resign over the accusations against coach Gilles Beyer.

In an autobiography published last week, former world championship bronze medalist Sarah Abitbol accused Beyer of raping her several times from 1990 to 1992 when she was between the ages of 15 and 17.

Another skater, Helene Godard, accused Beyer and another coach Jean-Roland Racle of sexual abuse when she was a minor.

The meeting of the federation's federal council has to first agree to vote on Gailhaguet's future and then, if the vote goes ahead, two-thirds of the participants must agree to remove him from power.

Gailhaguet, 66, has refused calls from Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu to resign, telling a media conference on Wednesday that he had "absolutely not protected Gilles Beyer".

"I found out about 90 percent of these incidents in the press and in a book... 10 days ago," he said.

Gailhaguet has been the most influential man in French ice skating since he became president in 1998, some years after the alleged offenses. — AFP