Ilia Malinin wows in return at figure skating world championships

The Quad God is back.

Ilia Malinin looked like his old self in his return to the ice for the figure skating world championships at O2 Arena in Prague on March 26, posting a personal best score of 111.29 in the short program. He'll enter the March 28 free skate with a sizeable nine-point lead.

Malinin opened his program with a quad flip and a combination of quad lutz and a triple toe loop before adding in a triple axel, one spin short of his trademark jump that earned the two-time defending world champion his nickname.

The runaway favorite to win gold in men's figure skating at the Winter Olympics in February, Malinin saw his five-point lead evaporate when he fell twice during his routine, dropping him from first to eighth place in one of the most stunning upsets in the sport's history. He later went on to say that he succumbed to the pressure of his first Olympic Games.

Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan won gold in Milano Cortina, but skipped worlds.

Adam Sao Him Fa of France finished second on March 26 with a score of 101.85 after nailing a quad toe loop with a triple toe loop and a quad salchow. Estonia's Aleksandr Selevko came in third with a personal-best 96.49.

Japanese two-time Olympic silver medalist and three-time worlds silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama entered the day as the favorite but fell while attempting a lutz. His countryman, Olympic bronze medalist Shun Sato, currently sits in fourth place.