Nebelhorn Trophy 2024: Yamamoto Sota puts Japan back on top in the ISU Challenger Series after a near year's drought
The Japanese figure skater delivered a dazzling display of jump combinations to overhaul Latvia's Deniss Vasiljevs and Italy's Gabriele Frangipani into the top spot.
Figure Skating
Yamamoto Sota became the first Japanese figure skater to win an ISU Challenger Series event in almost a year when he came out on top at the 2024 Nebelhorn Trophy on Friday (20 September).
The 24-year-old dazzled the spectators in Oberstdorf, Germany with his complex jump combinations in the free skate, which included a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop, a triple Axel-triple Salchow and a triple flip-double Axel to finish.
The clean delivery of his choreography earned Yamamoto 183.72 points to boost his overall score to a winning 262.72.
Fellow Japanese skaters Kagiyama Yuma and Sato Shun came close to victory in the Challenger Series at the 2024 Lombardia Trophy a week prior when they finished second and third, respectively, to USA's Ilia Malinin, but it was Yamamoto who ultimately claimed a top spot for Japan with this performance. The last Japanese man to win an ISU Challenger Series event was Miura Kao in early October 2023.
“I am much more happy with the free skate than with the short program and I am really glad to have won here at my first time in Oberstdorf," Yamamoto said a press conference after the event. "I decided to not go for the quad flip and replace it with a triple loop after this morning’s practice. That’s why I was able to concentrate on all the other jumps”
Yamamoto trailed Latvia's Deniss Vasiljevs and Italy's Gabriele Frangipani after the short program, but neither of them were able to come close to his free skate score.
Frangipani gave a solid effort with two quad jumps to start and dynamic choreography filled with his signature dramatic flair. A natural showman, the Italian skated right up to the spectator stands and slid on his back at one point in the program, which he finished by joyusly punching the ice with both fists.
His free program score of 166.93 and overall score of 246.11 kept him in the second spot he held coming into the final skate.
The leader of the short program Deniss Vasiljevs was not able to defend his top status, however, after stumbling on two jumps. The Latvian skater landed several quadruple Salchows during his morning training in Oberstdorf, but fell on this jump at the start of his free competition.
While Vasiljevs was able to regain his momentum for the following jumps and deliver an emotional choreography set to "La Bayadere" by Ludwig Minkus, he lost more points when he touched the ice with both feet on his finishing triple loop and was not surprised when the scoreboard showed his fall in the rankings.
“It was a good start. While I feel like my SP is around 60 per cent ready, I think this LP is at 35, maybe 40 per cent," Vasiljevs told Golden Skate. "This program is quite challenging to me for some reasons. I have to build it up. You have to be graceful, you have to build it up, you have to be in that ballet posture all the time. It still feels very athletic and tense but I think I have to breathe more during that program."
Vasiljevs collected 151.94 points for his free skate to put him in third place with an overall score of 235.72.
Cha Junhwan signals comeback is on the way
While Yamamoto won the competition in Oberstdorf, it was Cha Junhwan who staged the most impressive comeback of the day, rising from tenth place after the short program to fourth after the free skate, the third highest-scoring program across the field.
The crowd favourite from the Republic of Korea has been plagued with injuries in recent years, some going as far back as the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic cycle. His right ankle and left hip are among the persistent issues, making the 2023-24 season a difficult one for the figure skating veteran.
After finishing tenth at the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships, Cha shared how he continued to compete without sufficient recovery time and vowed to use the season he called a "failure" as a learning opportunity.
At the Nebelhorn Trophy, he showed signs of that learning and progress, unveiling a new free program set to Milva's "Balada para un Loco." It was a bold choice, considering that the only skater to have picked this music before was none other than Uno Shoma. The now-retired triple Olympic medallist took silver when performing to the passionate tune at the 2017 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.
“This is one of my personal favourite programs," Cha said about Uno's routine. "But I take a different approach to this music and I think it is a very different program.”
While Cha fell on his quadruple toe loop and stumbled on some landings, it was a welcome sight to his fans to see the skater land all his triple jumps and meet the demands of the program's energetic choreography.
“I did my best today," Cha told Golden Skate. "After the practices I decided to lower my technical content a bit. I want to work on that for the next competitions.”
His free program score of 158.67 catapulted Cha into first place, which he held until the final rotation. He finished fourth overall with 228.48 points.
Final men's singles results at the ISU Challenger Series Nebelhorn Trophy 2024 (top 10):
- Yamamoto Sota (JPN) 262.72 (79.00; 183.72)
- Gabriele Frangipani (ITA) 246.11 (79.18; 166.93)
- Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) 235.72 (83.78; 151.94)
- Cha Junhwan (KOR) 228.48 (69.81; 158.67)
- Roman Sadovsky (CAN) 225.24 (71.99; 153.25)
- Edward Appleby (GBR) 216.48 (74.02; 142.46)
- Mark Gorodnitsky (ISR) 213.27 (74.04; 139.23)
- Lev Vinokur (ISR) 208.90 (70.61; 138.29)
- Andrew Torgashev (USA) 207.65 (63.92; 143.73)
- Ro Yong Myong (PRK) 205.62 (65.74; 139.88)