BEIJING: Chinese teenager Yan Han soared to a personal best of 90.14 to light up the opening day of the Cup of China Grand Prix event on Friday.

Performing to Fats Waller’s “Viper’s Drag,” the 17-year-old skater pulled off a triple axel as well as a quad toe loop.

His short program score was two points more than that managed by Canada’s great Olympic hope Patrick Chan, the three-time world champion, at Skate Canada last week.

Yan, the 2012 world junior champion, finished with a 8.3 point advantage over Russia’s Maxim Kovtun (81.84).

Though the Russian landed a triple and two quads, his impressive performance was ruined by a tumble in the step sequence.

Japan’s Takahiko Kozuka sits third with 81.62, while current world silver medallist Denis Ten of Kazakhstan, who backed out of Skate America two weeks ago due to injury, is fourth with 77.05 points.

In the women’s short program, 17-year-old Muscovite Adelina Sotnikova, skating to “Habanera” from Bizet’s “Carmen,” topped the pile with 66.03 points.

The 2011 world junior champion opened with a triple loop-triple loop combination.

Though favored in the Beijing, the 2012 world champion, Italy’s Carolina Kostner, fell early in proceedings and is second heading into Saturday with 62.75.

There were few surprises in ice dance, with Russia’s Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev and Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France battling for supremacy in the short dance.

The Russian pair leads with 65.70 to lead their main rivals by more than three points.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States are third with 56.77.

In the pairs, China’s Olympic silver-medalists Pang Qing and Tong Jian scored 70.38 to edge out four-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany (69.07).

Fifty-one of the world’s best figure skaters from nine countries are competing in the Cup of China, which is the third leg of the six-stop Grand Prix series.

Skaters are looking to gather points and medals to reach the finale in Fukuoka, Japan, in December, the last major audition before the Winter Olympics in February.