Skate it again, Zhou! 12-year-old dominates juniorsOmori brings home the silver; Chen battles through illness to take bronze
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Battling a stomach virus, defending U.S. junior champion Nathan Chen fell on the second jump of a triple flip-triple toe combination and turned several other intended triples into doubles. He placed fourth in the free and third overall with 181.31 points. "I could have done better, but due to my setbacks -- I've been sick the past couple of days and I've had injury after injury -- I think I pulled off basically what I was going for," the 13-year-old said. In September, Chen hit a triple Axel in his short program and free skate at JGP Austria, contributing to a monster 222-point score. Chen withdrew from his second JGP due to a lower leg injury, and he was too weakened by illness to try the jump in Omaha. "The past two weeks, I was landing triple Axels, and then I got sick," Chen said. "I just thought it would be a smarter idea to pull back and try to do everything I could do in the moment and go from there." Chen's coach, Rafael Arutunian, plans to mend the skater's workaholic tendencies to help prevent future injuries. "If you want to get special results, which he got at the beginning of the season, it takes a lot of training," Arutunian said. "His body could not handle that much; he was going too far. Maybe we have to go a little slower, but, as usual, if you want to reach an incredible result, that's what it takes. "Maybe next time he will be a little more careful about how much time he spends on the ice. This season will give him more experience. He is so motivated; he has the heart of a champion. If you follow history, Evan [Lysacek], [Evgeni] Plushenko, [Alexei] Yagudin, that's what it takes."
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