Shun Sato, last season’s Junior Grand Prix Final champion, beat rival Yuma Kagiyama to win the Eastern Japan Sectional Championship in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Saturday.
The 16-year-old Sato won with a total score of 229.18 points, ahead of Kagiyama who tallied 212.32. Taichiro Yamakuma was third at 203.36.
Wakaba Higuchi, the 2018 world silver medalist, captured the women’s crown with 203.24. Shiika Yoshioka came in second on 174.12, while Rinka Watanabe rounded out the podium in third at 167.19.
Other notable names included last season’s national bronze medalist Tomoe Kawabata, who placed fifth with 155.97, Yuka Nagai (154.20) who finished sixth, and Marin Honda (144.11), who settled for 10th.
Sato, a native of Sendai, landed two of the four quads he attempted in his free skate choreographed by Benoit Richaud to “Battle of the Kings.” He opened with a successful quad lutz, before falling on a quad salchow and quad toe loop. Sato recovered to land a nice quad toe loop/double toe loop combination. He received level fours on two of his spins.
Kagiyama, who was the Youth Olympic gold medalist in 2019, struggled through his free skate to “Avatar,” suffering four different falls in an uncharacteristically poor performance.
Higuchi stepped out on her opening triple axel in her free skate to “Poeta,” but did hit six triples and earned level fours on all of her spins. She was never really challenged in the competition, easily winning both the short program and free skate.
Kao Miura (220.55) prevailed in the junior men’s competition in impressive fashion, landing three clean quads in his free skate, while Rion Sumiyoshi (159.06) took the junior women’s title.
