American figure skater Malinin shatters junior world record

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — American figure skater Ilia Malinin shattered the world record in the short program at the junior world championships on Thursday, scoring 88.99 points with his program set to David Cook’s “Billie Jean” to take a big lead into the free skate. The 17-year-old Malinin, dubbed the “QuadGod” for his dynamic leaping ability, easily surpassed the previous record of 84.87 points that current world champion Shoma Uno set at the junior championships in 2015. In the pairs competition, Karina Safina and Luka Berulava of Georgia lead with 67.77 points. Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos of Australia were second and Anastasiia Smirnova and Danil Siianytsia of the U.S. were third.