Japan Figure Skating Championships 2025: Kagiyama Yuma's Dominance in the Men's Short Program
The curtains rose on the Japan Figure Skating Championships 2025 in Tokyo on Friday, December 19, with Kagiyama Yuma dominating the men's short program. With a score of 104.27, Yuma put one foot through the door to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, opening a nine-point gap on Miura Kao (95.65).
Junior star Nakata Rio followed in third with a score of 89.91. This year's Grand Prix Final bronze medallist, Sato Shun, who was expected to challenge Yuma for the title, laboured out of the gates with a score of 87.99.
Tomono Kazuki rounded out the last group for Saturday's free skate in fourth place with a score of 88.05, and Yamamoto Sota in sixth with a score of 82.21.
Yuma was docked points for a wobbly landing on his triple Axel but was otherwise solid. He looks well on his way to defending the championship and clinching the one automatic men's qualifying spot for the Games in February. A total of three men will be picked from the nationals.
"This being Olympic qualifying, I was so nervous," the double Olympic silver medallist said. "But regardless of competition, what I have to do doesn’t change. I managed to hold up from start to finish."
Yuma's close friend Sato, eyeing his first Olympic qualification here, needed to do better but tripled a quadruple Lutz and fell more than 10 points off the PB he set at the Grand Prix Final. Now the pressure will definitely be on the 21-year-old to deliver in the free.
"My timing was slightly off when I went into the jump compared to usual. I knew I wasn’t right at take-off so I held it back to a triple," Sato said, clutching his head in agony after his 2 minutes and 50 seconds.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Winter Games, athletes' participation at Milano Cortina 2026 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at the Games.
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