It wasn’t pretty, but 2010 World champion Daisuke Takahashi survived three falls in his free skate and won his fifth Japanese title, holding off a surge by Takahiko Kozuka thanks to his massive lead from the short program. The men’s medalists were crowned today at the Japan Figure Skating Championships, just after an upset in the ladies’ short program, where Kanako Murakami took the surprise lead.
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VIDEOS: Men’s free skate video gallery
With a lead of over ten points from a flawless short program, Takahashi had a huge edge going into the free skate. But it was a completely different story in the free skate, where he opened with a fall on his quad toe. He hit six clean triples after the opening fall but took two more spills, one on his second triple axel and the other on his final jump, a triple flip. His program component mark saved him from dropping from the top, and he took the gold with a final score of 254.60.
Skating immediately before Takahashi, Kozuka put down a solid, though still flawed, free skate. After hitting his opening quad toe, which he has struggled with all season, he landed seven more triples. A fall on his second triple axel prevented him from making up the deficit to Takahashi and repeating as champion. He finished with a 250.97, less than four points from the top.
It was youngster Yuzuru Hanyu, however, who seized the opportunity and won the free skate with a strong free skate that included a quad toe and seven clean triples. His only mistake was a singled final triple salchow, but he was technically the best of the top three men. But he trailed Kozuka by over ten points and Takahashi by over 20 points from the short program, and the deficit was too large to overcome. Still, he moved up from fourth to take home his first medal at his national championships after winning the junior title two years ago.
MEN (final standings)
1. Daisuke Takahashi – 254.60
2. Takahiko Kozuka – 250.97
3. Yuzuru Hanyu – 241.91
4. Tatsuki Machida – 213.48
5. Takahito Mura – 204.21
6. Daisuke Murakami – 203.41
7. Keiji Tankaa – 201.45
8. Kento Nakamura – 195.94
9. Shoma Uno – 190.42
10. Ryuju Hino – 188.30
11. Yoji Tsuboi – 178.72
12. Ryuichi Kihara – 178.64
13. Yukihiro Yoshida – 165.82
14. Akio Sasaki – 164.84
15. Yuki Horinouchi – 155.33
16. Sei Kawahara – 149.01
17. Takuya Kondo – 148.42
18. Yuta Onuma – 147.59
19. Tomoyuki Koryama – 145.49
20. Satoshi Nakamura – 134.82
21. Jo Matsumura – 133.68
22. Hayato Miyazaki – 124.63
23. Ryoichi Eguchi – 124.08
24. Yuya Tamada – 115.97
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