All-Japan Figure Skating Championships 2022 Day 2 - Uno Shoma pure class in men's short program
The reigning world and Grand Prix Final champion is a cut above the rest on a rocky first day for many of the male competition at the Japanese nationals in Osaka.
Figure Skating
On a day when no one could put it all together, there was one man head and shoulders above the pack.
Uno Shoma showed why he is the current world and Grand Prix Final champion, when he dominated the men’s short program at the All-Japan Figure Skating Championships on Friday (23 December), with a whopping 100.45 points.
Though unofficial, it beat the 99.99 Uno posted at the Grand Prix Final two weeks ago in Turin, Italy, which is the world’s highest score this season.
The two-time Olympic medallist was almost 13 points ahead of surprise second-place Shimada Koshiro, his stablemate under coach Stephane Lambiel.
Sitting in third was Yamamoto Sota, runner-up to Uno at the Grand Prix Final, on 86.89. Beijing 2022 and world championships silver medallist Kagiyama Yuma was a distant sixth (81.39) in his first competition in nine months.
While the competition often cringed and sighed at their performances before the Osaka crowd, Uno was at ease, like taking a walk in the park.
“I may have fallen short of the best short program I can possibly do but this is the best I can do for today,” he said.
“I took it nice and slow. As I said, I probably could have had a more elaborate program but I can confidently say that for today, this is the absolute best I could do.
“There’s nothing new that I accomplished but as I did in the Grand Prix Final, I skated as well as I possibly could, to what my body currently allows me to do.”
Uno lowered a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combo to a quad-double and didn’t finish the program with the sit spin he would have liked, but he wasn’t about to lose any sleep over it.
Call it class, call it presence. At the moment, and with a certain Hanyu Yuzuru no longer competing, Uno appears to be in a league of his own.
“I don’t feel like I need to force a quad-triple anymore, whether it’s the short or the free”, said Uno, who turned 25 last week. “I first worry about landing a jump before I take off on the next one.
“I don’t know if I’m perfecting the craft but the experience over the years certainly counts. I’ve experienced a lot which has allowed me to not overreact to how I do at each competition.
“I’ve come to realise as of late that you can learn a lot from failure. I don’t stress about it anymore.
“A few years ago, I didn’t think I had much of a future but right now, I have no set timetable. I’m not thinking about when to quit”.
Kagiyama underwhelms in return
Kagiyama was the last of 30 to start, in his first skate since the world championships in March. A day earlier, he had said he was at around “75, 80 per cent” and he wasn’t lying.
The 19-year-old botched a triple flip-triple loop combo and singled a triple Axel, showing he still has some work to do in coming back from a left-ankle injury that forced him to miss the entire Grand Prix season.
Kagiyama made no excuses for the performance and for starters will try to get through his free program on Sunday.
“First and foremost I’m glad I got through the 2 minutes and 50 seconds in one piece”, he said. ”It was my first competition in nine months. Seeing the banners in the stands, hearing the cheers, it made me so happy.
“I know what I did wrong. I know what to correct. It seemed like there were a lot of people out there praying for me. Hopefully next time, I can reassure them a bit more than I did today.”
Schedule for All-Japan Figure Skating Championships 2022 (all times local JST, UTC+9):
Saturday 24 December
Ice dance (free dance) - 14:19
Women's free program - 17:00
Sunday 25 December
Pair's free program - 15:30
Men's free program - 17:00