SOCHI, December 8 (R-Sport) - Daisuke Takahashi of Japan stormed to victory at the figure skating Grand Prix Finals on Saturday as reigning champion Patrick Chan finished third in his worst result since the 2010 Olympics.
Overnight leader Takahashi put in an error-strewn free program including a fall on his first quad attempt, but landed a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination to steady the ship.
He recovered to set a season best score of 269.40 and win the finals for the first time after four previous podium finishes.
"I'm really happy after this reuslt but my skating was not good today," said Takahashi, the Vancouver bronze medalist and 2010 world champion.
"I couldn't perform, but the second quad I performed after injuries, so I'm really happy."
Chan finished 10.74 points behind Takahashi in only his second defeat in ISU competition in the last two years, after coming second at Skate Canada in October.
"To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with my performance today," said Chan. "I did an extra combo. ... Now I know not to do it again."
Chan suggested he had been shaken out of complaceny by the shock of finishing third, as after his fifth place finish at the Olympics.
"There's almost a parallel to Olympics in Vancouver. I like to see that. The year after the Olympics I performed better," he said.
"I think I was missing a bit of the drive to be better and do more and more."
Chan fell on a quad as he slipped from second to third in a uncharacteristically untidy 169.39-point free skate from the man who went unbeaten last season.
Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu belied his reputation as a short program specialist to beat his free skate season best by 12 points and leapfrog Chan for second place, landing two quads in the process.
Hanyu finished 4.11 points adrift of Takahashi after performing to Notre Dame de Paris by Cocciante.
"Both for short program and free program I placed first, which is regrettable."
Javier Fernandez was the only man to have beaten Chan this season and was also the only skater to aim for an ambitious three quads in his free skate, and he was rewarded with a rise up the standings from fifth to fourth.
The Spaniard took the day's best points haul of 178.48 and a score of 258.62 overall.
Takahiko Kozuka had been fourth after the short program but dropped out of contention for a podium after a poor start to his free skate and finished fifth.
Kozuka fell on the second of his quads before a messy landing on the next element, a triple axel, but recovered well to post a season's best score of 166.88 for a total of 253.27.
Tatsuki Machida was far behind the rest after two erratic skates. His free routine failed to catch light despite being set to Russian favorite Stravinski's Firebird, leaving him on a total of 154.17.
