Patrick Chan is leaving the Grand Prix Final of figure skating with a bronze medal and plenty of disappointment.
The reigning world champion, who was second after the men's short program, barely made the podium after finishing just 0.04 points ahead of Spain's Javier Fernandez on Saturday.
Japan's Daisuke Takahashi won gold despite falling on his opening quad, while his compatriot Yuzuru Hanyu finished second.
Chan also fell on his initial quad, which was to be a combination with a triple toe-loop.
"To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with my performance today," said the Toronto native, who was the two-time defending champion at the event.
Takahashi recovered from his opening fall to land a quad toe-loop, but made other errors, including a hand down on a triple-double.
Chan wasn't the only Canadian going home with a medal and things to work on. World champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir settled for silver in ice dancing after losing out to Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White.
"It was a great skate for us," said Virtue. "We had to fight through it but that's not surprising considering the intensity of the competition. We are where we want to be at this point and we just have to go home and fine tune the program."
Virtue, from London, Ont., and Moir, from Ilderton, Ont., both in all black, made a moving interpretation of the classic Carmen story.
Davis and White performed an array of complex moves, including one in which he appears to drop her but holds on with one hand while she wraps her legs around one of his.
Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat of France took bronze.
In women's singles, Japan's Mao Asada used a clean free program that ranged from sprightly to quietly refined to win gold ahead of American Ashley Wagner. Japan's Akiko Suzuki was third.
Asada landed six triples in her program to excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a musical choice that delighted the Russian spectators.
Asada's only significant misstep was doubling what would have been her seventh triple of the program. But her presentation followed the music's emotional range, from the dreamy opening to its lively conclusion.
Wagner, who was just half a point behind Asada heading into the free skate, fell twice and ended up a distant second.
In pairs, Russia's Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov won gold. Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., finished fourth just ahead of Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto in fifth.
"That was one of our strongest long programs this year," said Duhamel.
