■Figure Skating Grand Prix (GP) Series Round 4 NHK Trophy (9th, National Yoyogi Stadium First Gymnasium)
The men’s single free skating (FS) was held, and Yuma Kagiyama (21, Oriental Bio/Chukyo University), who took first place in the short program (SP), also scored the top free skate with 194.39 points, winning the NHK Trophy for the second time with a total of 300.09 points. achieved.
Among the Japanese, SP 3rd place Tatsuya Tsuboi (21, Sysmex) set a personal best and finished in 3rd place, but SP 2nd place Yoshio Miura (19, Oriental Bio/Meiji University) fell twice on jumps, etc. An unexpected 6th place overall. Japanese athletes were unable to dominate the podium for the first time since 2006 (excluding the irregular holding in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic).
The key to the final run was a fall on the opening quadruple flip, but his specialty, the quadruple Salchow, was successful. He then landed a series of quadruple and triple toe loops, regained his grip, and then landed a series of jumps from the triple accelerator. In the second half, when the base point increased to 1.1 times, he was able to hold off the quad toe loop even though he lost his balance a little, and the solo triple accelerator and triple flip-loop combination landed nicely.
After his performance, in an interview with the winner, Kagiyama expressed his regret over his fall on the first jump, saying, “I’m really disappointed.I was able to finish the short race without making any mistakes.” “But after that, I was able to do other quads and get off cleanly, so I think that was a good thing,” he said.
Kagiyama will participate in the NHK Trophy and the fifth round in Finland next week in this season’s GP series, aiming to qualify for the final for the second consecutive season.
Tsuboi created a good flow with his jumps from the opening quadruple, and was able to complete the slide without any major collapse. After her performance, she gave a big fist pump and scored a personal best of 251.52 points. His first podium in the GP series.
Miura fell on a quadruple loop and a quadruple toe loop in the second half. Furthermore, he missed other jumps and was unable to use his original strength. SP scored 102.96 points, his first “over 100 points”, but was lackluster in the free skate, finishing in 6th place overall (11th in the free skate).
[Men’s single results]
1st place) Yuma Kagiyama Total 300.09 points
2nd place) Daniel Grassle total 264.85 points
3rd place) Tatsuya Tsuboi total 251.52 points
・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
6th place) Yoshio Miura Total 240.38 points
Source: Japanese