BEIJING - Defending champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan missed his opening jump attempt to rank eighth after the figure skating short program at Beijing 2022 Olympics here on Tuesday.

Hanyu bungled a quadruple Salchow from the very beginning and collected a mediocre 95.15 points. While his compatriots, Yuma Kagiyama and Shoma Uno both set their season's best, to sit in the second and third place respectively. Nathan Chen of the United States led the men's short program with 113.97 points.

"I didn't feel anything bad until takeoff. When I took off, I was under some hole, maybe [caused by] some other skater's toe [loop] or flip or something," said Hanyu, who hopes to make up the loss in free skating.