Shoma Uno easily defended his title at the 2017 Japanese National Figure Skating Championships.
Figure Skating News
Shoma Uno won his second consecutive title at the 2017-18 Japanese National Figure Skating Championships. Keiji Tanka picked up the silver, while Takahito Mura earned the bronze.
Uno’s program to selections from Turandot, including “Nessun Dorma,” began well, with a well-executed quadruple loop immediately followed by a solid triple Axel. However, as the free skate neared its end, the 20-year-old seemed to tire, and fell on his trademark quadruple flip which was under-rotated. He still landed a quad toe, but had difficulty with his three-jump combination.
Nevertheless, the defending champion earned level fours on his spins and footwork to finish in first with 186.47 and overall (283.30).
Tanaka opened his daring routine with a solid quadruple Salchow, however, he stepped out of the second quad Salchow which was meant to be a combination jump. The 23-year-old went on to land a quad toe, a jump he had never demonstrated in competition, but then struggled on several of following jump passes. He finished second in the long (175.81) and overall (267.15).
Mura stepped out of a triple Lutz in the latter half of his routine to Phantom of the Opera and received an edge call on a triple Lutz combination, but otherwise gave a solid free skate. The veteran skater also landed a quad toe and delivered two level four spins to finish third in the long and overall (258.41)
Kazuki Tomono finished in fourth, closely followed by Daisuke Murakami.
Immediately following the completion of the Men’s competition at the 2017-2018 Japanese championships, the selections for the Olympic team were announced: Uno, Tanaka, and Yuzuru Hanyu were named to the men’s Olympic team. While a skater must compete at nationals to be considered, Hanyu earned an exception to this rule as a former World medalist who had missed nationals due to injury.
Mura was named as the first alternate, and then Tomono and Murakami, respectively.
