Figure Skating

Kaori Sakamoto Leads Japanese Medal Sweep at Skate Canada

AP
Gold medalist Kaori Sakamoto, center, poses with compatriots silver medalist Rino Matsuike, left, and bronze medalist Hana Yoshida on the podium at Skate Canada in Halifax, Canada, on Saturday.

AFP-Jiji

19:52 JST, October 27, 2024

MONTREAL (AFP-Jiji) — Threetime reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto led a Japanese podium sweep at Skate Canada on Saturday,locking up a second straight Canadian women’s title despite two falls in her free skate.

Sakamoto, who led 19-year-old American Alysa Liu after the short program, looked a little tight during her jazzy free skate, falling on a Salchow jump and again on a triple flip while fighting to hang on during a few other moves.

But her second-best free skate score of 126.24 was enough for gold in the second Grand Prix event of the season in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

She finished with a total of 201.21 points, well ahead of compatriot Rino Matsuike — who roared from 10th place with a sensational free skate that earned 139.85 points for a total of 192.16.

Japan’s Hana Yoshida was third with 191.37 points as Liu, in her first Grand Prix event since 2021, dropped to sixth.

Reigning pairs world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada captured their second consecutive Skate Canada title, also despite finishing second in the free skate.

Stellato-Dudek and Deschamps had led after Friday’s short program. Their free skate earned 124.10 points, enough to give them gold with a total of 197.33 ahead of Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigirev, who topped the free skate with 126.12.

That lifted the Uzbek duo, fourth after the short program, into second overall on 189.65, with Australians Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore third overall on 186.14.

Men’s world champion Ilia Malinin got off to a roaring start in his bid to complete a rare Skate America-Skate Canada double with a short program that garnered 106.22 points.

Malinin, the 19-year-old American who won a third consecutive Skate America last week, delivered a superb short program that put him almost 10 points ahead of Japan’s Shun Sato going into Sunday’s deciding free skate.

The 20-year-old Sato, a former world junior champion, earned 96.52 points.

Reigning Skate Canada champion Yamamoto Sota was third on 92.16.