China's teenager skater Yan shines at his Olympic debut

With a smooth and clean performance, China's 17-year-old skater Yan Han made his Olympic debut at Sochi on Thursday.

Skating to Minor Waltz, Viper's Drag, the confident Yan hit a triple axel and a quad toeloop with ease. Despite a minor mistake in his triple lutz and triple toeloop combination, Yan scored 85.52 points to rank fourth.

Speaking of his first Olympics, Yan said he tried to take it the same as other competitions.

"I am exciting and nervous," he said. "My teammates are all here cheering for me, which gave me lots of encouragement."

"It is my average level. There were some minor mistakes in the steps and my triple jump. I'll take today's performance as a warm up (for the men's event), and I will pay special attention to the mistakes I made in my next practices," said Yan, winner of the China GP last year.

Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu led the short program with 97.98, while Russia's Turin Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko trailed in 91.39, which was his personal best. Canada's reigning world champion Patrick Chan came in third with 89.71.

Asked about Plushenko, Yan said he had a lot to learn from the figure skating veteran.

"He has experience and I can learn a lot from him," said Yan. "But I think the way he performs is out of time."