All-Japan Figure Skating Championships 2023: Sakamoto Kaori completes title hat-trick ahead of Chiba Mone and Shimada Mao
Reigning world champion Sakamoto booked her place in Montreal in March with Shimada making the podium for the seconds straight year having been seventh after the short program.
Figure Skating
Sakamoto Kaori claimed her third consecutive All-Japan Figure Skating Championship in Nagano on Sunday (24 December).
That made it four national titles in total - her first was back in 2018 - for the 23-year-old Kobe native who punched her ticket for March's ISU World Championships in Montreal where she will defend her women's singles crown.
Beijing 2022 bronze medallist Sakamoto closed out four days of competition at the Big Hat with a classy free skate of 154.34 for a winning total of 233.12.
Chiba Mone was second place with 209.27 ahead of two-time Junior Grand Prix Final champion Shimada Mao (202.28) who rose from seventh after the short program to take third for the second year running.
Yamashita Mako, second after the short, slipped to eighth place after falling on her triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination.
Sakamoto has been perfect through four competitions this season, and remains on track to become the first Japanese - male or female - to sweep three successive nationals and worlds simultaneously.
“My goal for this season has been to win three straight at both the nationals and the world championships,” Sakamoto said. “So it’s a relief to get one of them out of the way.
“The nerves absolutely ballooned today because I really wanted to achieve the three-peat. I felt a responsibility.
“I was so nervous during practice today that I couldn’t breathe. But in the several hours leading up to competition I managed to adjust.”
While scores in national competitions are deemed unofficial, Sakamoto’s total was just three points shy of her ISU competition personal best.
As her younger peers struggled to put the pieces together on the biggest domestic stage in the skating-mad country, Sakamoto demonstrated why she is the two-time defending world champion.
To hit her season target, however, Sakamoto says she will have to be better in three months’ time. But given the way she has skated during the campaign, there’s little reason to doubt she will be better.
“In order to win three in a row at the worlds I have to level up from today’s performance, be it spins and what not,” Sakamoto said.
“I have some adjustments to make if I want to have a perfect skate at the World Championships.”