Hanyu Outskating His Idol Evgeni Plushenko?

Yuzuru Hanyu has done it again - dominating the final session of the Figure Skating Grand Prix just closed in Spain's Barcelona December 12 rewriting his own world record. Hanyu now doubles the Olympics Gold medalist at Torino in 2006 - Evgeni Plushenko. It makes sense, though, as Hanyu has always idolized Plushenko since his childhood and paved his way in the wake of the Russian figure skater.

"No," says Hanyu, "No, it's not that I want to be just like Plushenko. I want to be a skater with a world of his own - just as Plushenko was". Hanyu says he found "a color of his own" at NHK.

Color of his own? Probably he means his new-found strength, a strength of his own. In performance Hanyu resembles Plushenko and in fact, there are a few others just as skillful. But in technical finesse none comes even close to him now. He is in a world of his own. An 18-year-old Chinese boy, Boyang Jin, made his senior debut at NHK and impressed with his well-executed quadruples. Shoving the subject aside, Hanyu said he would merely go after his own skating but was visibly conscious of the rising talent from China.

People wonder in anticipation how far up Hanyu will go? His coach Brian Orser says Hanyu has a rough road ahead. Top scores can't come so often in a year: his superb image at NHK can turn a pressure on him, he says.

"Health problems, for instance," says Orser, "as Hanyu is not so physically blessed. He catches cold often and unexpected injuries sent hm to hospital". Orser may try to hold Hanyu's horse down; less likely will Hanyu let him, though.

Hanyu's brilliant score of 330.43 at Barcelona is too hard to beat for anyone else but Hanyu himself, says Brian Orser. "People at Barcelona bore witness that day to a historic feat in the history of figure skating", commented Orser.