Slight error 'costly' for Aussie figure skater

A slight error on his first jump proved costly but Australian figure skater Brendan Kerry has at least enjoyed a better result in PyeongChang than Sochi.

Kerry has finished 20th in the men's single after scoring 150.75 in the medal-deciding free skate round, marked down when he popped a double toe loop on Saturday.

He qualified for the decider a day earlier by taking 16th place in the short program, an improvement to the Winter Olympics four years ago when he was out in the first round.

He recorded an equal season-best free skate when he landed a triple lutz-triple toe loop, triple axel and triple axel-double toe loop.

But his total score over the two rounds of 233.81 was 84.04 points off Japanese gold medal winner Yuzuru Hanyu, who was rewarded for landing a quad salchow-triple toe loop.

Japan's Shoma Uno took silver and Spaniard Javier Fernandez bronze.

Meanwhile, Australian alpine skier Greta Small was almost three seconds off the pace to finish 31st in the super-G.