The Latvian figure skater managed to successfully execute the program without obvious mistakes and was evaluated with 82.37 points, receiving 40.37 points for technical elements and 42 points for program components.
“Today I completely enjoyed my performance and I am as happy as I have not been this season,” Vasiliev said after the short program. “I’m not satisfied with the result, I still need to understand what I didn’t do well enough, because I have a problem that I feel tense before the competition. I also want to enjoy my time here, I feel very relaxed, just like on vacation.”
The best result in the optional program was achieved by last year’s world champion Shoma Uno from Japan, who scored 104.63 points. The second place with 100.38 points is occupied by the US figure skater Ilya Malinins, while the top three is rounded off by Korean Junhwan Cha with 99.64 points.
Vasilijevs started in the fifth group with the fifth number, but 34 figure skaters participated in the very short program. On Saturday, the best 24 athletes will compete in the optional program.
In January, Vasilijevs took fifth place in the European championships, but a year earlier at the European Championships in Tallinn, he won the bronze medal with a record total of 272.08 (90.95+181.84) points.
Vasiljevs is competing in the world championship for the seventh time and he has achieved the best result so far in 2018, winning the sixth place in Milan. Last year, the Latvian figure skater took 13th place in Montpellier.
In Saitama, Latvia is also represented by Sofja Stepchenko, who achieved the 18th best result in the short program and will compete in free skating on Friday, as well as the duo Aurelija Ippolito/Lūks Russell, who will participate in the ice dance competition.