Japanese Skaters Finish Off the Podium at Rostelecom Cup

From November 20 – 22, this year’s Rostelecom Cup took place in Moscow, Russia. This was the fifth event in the International Skating Union’s 2015 – 2016 Grand Prix Series. Japan sent 4 skaters to this competition, none of which finished in the top 3.

Last year’s winner Rika Hongo finished in 5th place, the highest among the Japanese skaters. Her total score was 179.12. Rika’s short program was given a score of 63.45, putting her in 6th place. Her free skate received a score of 115.67, the fifth best of the night. She doubled her triple salchow. She also fell on her triple lutz and didn’t do the planned double toe loop in the combination.

Yuka Nagai finished in 8th place with a total score of 159.62. She was in 9th place after the short program, with a score of 53.19. She singled the first part of her triple lutz-triple toe combination. Her free skate was the 6th best of the night, with a score of 106.43. Once again, she singled the first part of her triple lutz-triple toe combination, but this time she didn’t do the triple toe loop on the end. She attempted the triple lutz again, falling.

The third Japanese female skater at the Rostelecom Cup, Riona Kato, finished in 10th place. The sole Japanese male skater, Takahiko Kozuka, finished in 9th place.

This coming weekend sees this season’s Grand Prix Series come to an end in Japan at the NHK Trophy, which will be held in Nagano. Japan is sending Yuzuru Hanyu, Takahito Mura, Keiji Tanaka, Mao Asada, Mariko Kihara, Satoko Miyahara, Emi Hirai / Marien dela Asuncion, and Kana Muramoto / Chris Reed to the competition.

In other figure skating news, today the ISU decided that the short program results for the Trophee Eric Bompard will be the final results. The event was cut short due to the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris on the first day of the competition. Because of this, Shoma Uno is the winner of the competition, while Daisuke Murakami is in 3rd.

Rika Hongo

Short program