Gold medalist Kaori Sakamoto, center, poses with silver medalist Rino Matsuike, left, and bronze medalist Hana Yoshida on the Skate Canada podium in Halifax, Canada, on Saturday.
19:52 JST, October 27, 2024
MONTREAL (AFP-Jiji) – Three-time reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto led a Japanese podium sweep at Skate Canada on Saturday to claim 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 cramped during her jazzy free skate, falling on a Salchow jump and again on a triple somersault, while during a few other moves moisture to retain.
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 netted 139.85 points for a total of 192.16.
Japan’s Hana Yoshida was third with 191.37 points, while Liu dropped to sixth in her first Grand Prix event since 2021.
Reigning two-time 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 taken the lead after Friday’s short program. Their free skate yielded 124.10 points, enough to give them gold with a total of 197.33, ahead of Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Geynish and Dmitrii Chigirev, who led the free skate with 126.12.
That moved the Uzbek duo, fourth after the short program, into second place overall on 189.65, while Australians Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore were third overall on 186.14.
Men’s World Champion Ilia Malinin got off to a great start in his attempt to complete a rare Skate America-Skate Canada double with a short program that netted 106.22 points.
Malinin, the 19-year-old American who won Skate America for the third time in a row last week, delivered a fantastic short program that put him almost 10 points ahead of Japan’s Shun Sato going into Sunday’s decisive free skate.
The 20-year-old Sato, former world junior champion, achieved 96.52 points.
Reigning Skate Canada champion Yamamoto Sota was third at 92.16.
