2022-23 Japanese Nationals Recap

[gsk8]

Was there any doubt? Looking forward to seeing them at 4CC and Worlds

Muramoto and Takahashi claim first national title

2022-23 Japanese Nationals: Ice Dance Recap The ice dance team of Kana Muramoto and Daisuke Takahashi impressed the judges with passionate performances at the 91st National Championships (第９１回全日本フィギュアスケート選手権大会), rightfully claiming […]

www.goldenskate.com

Great job by Mihara! Sakamoto takes advice from fans and friends on makeup and hair ; Yokoi is retiring but not disappearing!

Japan's Kaori Sakamoto reclaims national title

2022-23 Japanese Nationals: Women’s Recap World Champion Kaori Sakamoto reclaimed the throne at the 91st National Championships (第９１回全日本フィギュアスケート選手権大会) on Saturday. The competition was held from December 22-25 at the Towa […]

www.goldenskate.com

A fifth win for Uno; great rebound by Miura!

https://www.goldenskate.com/2022/12/shoma-uno-wins-the-fifth-national-title/

What are your overall thoughts on the event?

 

[Anna K.]

Men's top 3 of my dream.

 

[Bluediamonds09]

Is rika still dealing with an injury in her back since she doesn't do the beilmann anymore (not that I mind)? I thought only her foot was injured.
I wanted to cry for Enchantress Ruon Sumiyoshi!

 

[yesterday]

Is rika still dealing with an injury in her back since she doesn't do the beilmann anymore (not that I mind)? I thought only her foot was injured.
I wanted to cry for Enchantress Ruon Sumiyoshi!

She had back problems before the foot injury, so that might be just a learning from that time and a preventative measure now.

 

[Dreamer57]

I think the pressure of home Worlds really affected a lot of the singles skaters... also the desire to earn the right to go there may have impacted their mental states.

I know that Shoma had a great runthrough of his free in practice, but on the day well he made that 4-3 combo a priority of his Sumitada did a marvellous job in his free skate and what a great singles + pairs career he can embark on over the next few seasons! I am delighted for Koshiro and kazuki to make the podium, they should be really proud of themselves.

Love Mone's SP and Kaori's FS. But Ami really delivered on the 2 triple axels in the FS (like she said in her JGP interview) and I adore her miss Saigon choreo! It was an exciting event, although the short programs were generally quite shaky. Rika has made good progress and I hope she can recover well and restore all her jumps for next season.

M/T national champions! Although j guess they are a little frustrated having fallen at 2 nationals in a row, hopefully at 4CC and worlds they'll skate everything clean!
I've found it hard to watch videos of the ice dance performances, with not much from the official channels. The top women's skates are uploaded quickly, but they need to do this for all disciplines and make their national events more accessible to international viewers!

 

[yesterday]

I found some programs/gala videos and playlists on youtube - in case they can not be seen/played, set your (free) VPN to Japan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9pgbfMUqTY&list=PL7w_eql0tjQ0Gq09j77jMZt5_14NmkiTc (here should be 65 videos)
several performances across the disciplines are also here: https://www.youtube.com/@user-yy6fw6nc4l/videos

 

[Anna K.]

Is it decided already who's going to 4CC, Worlds, and Junior Worlds?

I'm guessing Miura/Kihara are going even though they did not participate in Nationals.

 

[Dreamer57]

Is it decided already who's going to 4CC, Worlds, and Junior Worlds?

I'm guessing Miura/Kihara are going even though they did not participate in Nationals.

Yes. You can view the team here: https://www.goldenskate.com/forum/threads/2023-team-japan-wc-jwc-4cc.94502/

Miura/Kihara are going to 4CC, they bent their own rules for that.

 

[Skater Boy]

Japan is looking like an overall team contender. Very strong in 3 out of 4 disciplines - actually probably gold favourites in 3 events. In dance well they only have one viable team now led by Daisuke. Take away his popularity and fame there are definitetly skill issues - not just technique but strength on lifts still. Japan usually not known for national inflation definitely had it in dance and ladies. Good for Kaori for winning after GP. Russian ladies and men are very strong that there are several gold medal contenders especially without the Russian ladies competing. I am very confident that Japan will dominate worlds though with fair judging Daisuke and partner could deservedly get hammered they probably won't.

 

[CanadianSkaterGuy]

Some really strong performances here!

Lovely to see Kaori bounceback and prove the GPF was a fluke (although her GOE was way too high, even for a Nationals).


Rinka and Kazuki shouldn't be on the World team IMO.

Yes, Rinka won Skate Canada but she's still very green, and Yoshida I think is more solid. Not too controversial though as Rinka should be rewarded for a good GP, and almost medalled at the GPF. But 12th is really just way too low to be given that spot.

Kazuki while very entertaining definitely shouldn't be on the World team. That spot goes to Miura. Any of his "normal" SPs this year would have got him silver here and this is one bad competition. Tomono has been to Worlds before and a GP bronze putting him over Sato (who was literally a point off from him) and Miura (2nd in the FS) is very questionable. I don't think 3 spots will be in jeopardy for Japan, assuming Uno is one of the top 3 at Worlds, but Miura was totally hosed here. If Watanabe can end up 12th and still make the World team...

Congrats to Kana/Dai!!!! Does this make Daisuke the first Japanese champion in two different senior disciplines?

The Japanese pair also has loads of potential if they sort out their lifts/throws/twist (seems very much laying the groundwork for those with both of them being primarily singles skaters)... seems a bit crazy that she can do a 3S+3T and yet their throws are doubles! In't their 3S+3T+2A the highest BV of any pairs element ever?

 

[synesthesia]

Does this make Daisuke the first Japanese champion in two different senior disciplines?

He's the first Japanese skater to earn singles and dance titles. Regarding the handful of other Japanese champions in two different disciplines, he's in illustrious company: according to this article and figureskatingmisc on twitter Shin Amano, Masami Kobayashi and Yamato Tamura have singles + pairs titles and Toshimitsu Doke has pairs + dance titles. (Yamato isn't listed in the article.)

 

[YuBluByMe]

Rinka and Kazuki shouldn't be on the World team IMO.

Yes, Rinka won Skate Canada but she's still very green, and Yoshida I think is more solid. Not too controversial though as Rinka should be rewarded for a good GP, and almost medalled at the GPF. But 12th is really just way too low to be given that spot.

Kazuki while very entertaining definitely shouldn't be on the World team. That spot goes to Miura. Any of his "normal" SPs this year would have got him silver here and this is one bad competition. Tomono has been to Worlds before and a GP bronze putting him over Sato (who was literally a point off from him) and Miura (2nd in the FS) is very questionable. I don't think 3 spots will be in jeopardy for Japan, assuming Uno is one of the top 3 at Worlds, but Miura was totally hosed here. If Watanabe can end up 12th and still make the World team...

I definitely agree about Watanabe and my brain tends to question Tomono’s selection, as well when I think about Japan’s selection criteria. The team selections were the ugliest part of Nationals. But it wasn’t Miura who got the shaft. It was Sato.

To clarify, Tomono’s GP bronze had nothing to do with his selection. It was his World Standing and the one point margin of victory at Nationals. That’s it. That all it was. Sato also has a GP bronze and a GP Silver and qualified for the GPF, but those things do not matter. He also has a SB ten points higher than Tomono’s, but that doesn’t matter either because it’s only the fourth highest SB among Japanese men. He does have the third highest Season Ranking and TES among Japanese men and those things do matter, but not as much as World Ranking, and of course, making the Nationals podium. Had Season Ranking been weighted more than World Ranking (like it should), or if Sato hadn’t fallen on his 3A in the SP, he would have been named to the World team instead.

My brain knows all of that and so choosing Tomono over Sato seems wrong. But my heart really doesn’t care. It would have been heartbreaking for Tomono to finally make the podium and still manage to be named as an alternate… again . In this case, I’m grateful for Jfed being boneheads.

The SPs for both the ladies and men were underwhelming, but both disciplines made up for it in the free skates. The junior girls showed out! Every single junior lady that competed in the JGP made the top ten. Nakai landed two clean 3As, but she’s apparently not used to that layout since she forgot to put in a third combo, which ultimately cost her the bronze medal. Heh, she’ll learn. It was a great technical performance and hopefully she repeats that at Junior Worlds.

Rika’s return to competition is strong. Just three months ago, she probably wouldn’t have made the free skate so this result is great for her, though I’m sure she’s disappointed.

The men weren’t as good as the ladies in the free, but the free skates were still much better than the SPs. It’s a deep field and any of the top 6 could have gone to Worlds with Uno.

Heh, or maybe top 7. The most badass thing in the entire competition is Moriguchi - a junior pairs skater - winning the National Championship in pairs (Miura/Kihara were unable to participate due to flight cancellation ) and then placing 7th in the singles event. The sheer badassery of this cannot be underestimated. I mean, he beat Kagiyama, which is something he can boast about 15 years from now. And he was very close to beating Miura. His jumps are humongous and he did well enough at Nationals to earn an international assignment for next season…as a singles skater! He can have his pick! I’m way too tickled about this. I’ve been joking about how the Japanese’s men field
is so deep that they have to send some of their guys to other disciplines for a few days now.

 

[KiraraChin]

I'm sorry, but I really disagree with this narrative that Kao & Shun were shafted. They have no-one to blame but themselves IMO.

In the end, JSF's decisions are made by human beings. Optics matter.

While it's true that Kao and Shun both did really well in their GP assignments, they left a lot to be desired at GPF. Kao had a really bad tournament overall; Shun had a nightmare SP. Even with a clean free skate, the fact that he was the first to skate (because he was last in the SP) meant his PCS were really held back (and he's not a PCS skater anyway). I suspect this raised a lot of eyebrows with JSF, especially in contrast to Sota, who delivered.

Come Nats, Kao proceeds to have a meltdown in the SP, which even in the context of everyone skating rough, still looked really bad. He did a lot better in the free but still with a couple of mistakes; it wasn't quite the lights out performance that he needed. As for Shun, he did better, but still with mistakes and failed to make the podium - a 1pt difference is still a difference.

Then, there is the context: JSF chose Sota for the second spot, deservedly so. But, realistically, there was no way in hell they would dismiss two out of three Nationals medallists; this would look politically very bad and would further undermine the status of Nationals as a crucial competition for selection. So, once they chose Sota, they knew they had to choose between Kazuki or Koshiro. As Sota himself is still relatively inexperienced (never been to 4CC or senior Worlds), it made sense to choose the seasoned veteran, the guy with a proven track record of delivering at Worlds.

Besides, while Kazuki's highs have not been not as high as Kao and Shun's so far, his lows have not been as low. Apart from Nebelhorn in the very beginning of the season, Kazuki has had no meltdowns; even with mistakes on the quads, he's been able to deliver on the other elements and performance consistently, and that's exactly why he edged out both Kao and Shun at Nats.

Of course, there is an argument that Kao and Shun deserved the spot because of their results earlier in the season. But the counter argument to that is that you have to deliver when it matters and, with Japan hosting Worlds this season, the ability to withstand pressure is crucial. If Kao and Shun clearly felt the pressure in the two most important events of the season so far, then it's not too unreasonable to think that perhaps they're not quite ready for a home worlds yet.

Therefore, I do agree with JSF's choice of sending them to 4CC: it's a big stage but not quite the same amount of pressure. Shun was further rewarded with being first Worlds alternate over Koshiro, while Kao will have the opportunity to seek revenge at junior Worlds. While I do appreciate this is not the ideal result for them, such is the way of the world. It really shows that, in a field that deep, you really have to strengthen your case in any way you can, and failing to earn a medal at GPF/Nationals did them no favours in that respect.

 

[surimi]

To clarify, Tomono’s GP bronze had nothing to do with his selection. It was his World Standing and the one point margin of victory at Nationals. That’s it. That all it was.

I haven't seen the official announcement, so did JSF say this? Did they claim that Tomono's WS and the margin were the reasons he was chosen?
Because if I was JSF, I'd pick him over Sato, Miura and Shimada even without that margin. Shoma's been super consistent, and can secure 3 spots next year (I suppose it takes a top 3 placement, correct?). He's also been super consistent in being healthy enough to compete. I don't recall him ever WD due to injury (I may be mistaken). But, betting all on a single skater is risky. Injuries and other unpleasant stuff can happen to anyone anytime, and that's when JSF needs a reliable skater. All of the other 3 contenders are untested at WC. They might shine, or they might fail. Sato's and Miura's scoring potential is higher than Kazuki's - if they go clean (but Kazuki's PCS should always be quite a bit higher compared to these two, IMO). But Sato is injury-prone, and untested at major championships. Miura has a 4CC medal under his belt, but he lost to Kazuki there, and didn't do that well at this season's GPF. His injury record is also worse than Kazuki's. Should something go awry with Shoma's health or condition, they need a skater who is consistent and who proved his grit at WC, because Sota, as much as I like him, is a huge question mark. He can skate like he did in GPF, or he can skate like he did at Nationals. WC is in Japan, after all, and he might be reminded of Nationals, and flop like he tends to at Nationals. Kazuki, OTOH, is a skater they can trust with WC. Both of his WC assignments were a success, he placed in the top 6, and he got his highest season's scores there. It's clear he thrives at WC. Which is why his selection makes sense to me, and I'd say it's a safer bet than any of the young three.

 

[YuBluByMe]

I haven't seen the official announcement, so did JSF say this? Did they claim that Tomono's WS and the margin were the reasons he was chosen?

JSF didn’t say it outright, but they do not need to because it’s written in their selection criteria: Top 3 at Nationals, Top two at GPF, top three SB, top 3 World Ranking, top 3 Season Ranking, and top 3 TES (domestic competitions included). Tomono was top 3 at Nationals and he’s also third among Japanese men in World Ranking. Sato’s third among Season Ranking for Japanese men and has the third highest TES. So yes, it was Tomono’s World standing and the one-point difference between bronze and fourth. Sato’s better season and higher SB didn’t hold because of the way the criteria is written and because World ranking was given more weight than season.

Jfed does not need to fret about the men keeping their spots. Uno and any combination of the top 6 will manage that easily.

But Sato’s lowest score in international competition this season is a 249 and Tomono’s highest is a 251 so I definitely disagree about the highs and lows of their scoring potential. Seems to me that Sato with mistakes will outscore a cleanish Tomono more often than not. After all is said and done, Sato actually has a strong argument for the Worlds team over Tomono - he hit the same amount of selection criteria - but actually choosing him required being reasonable and looking at the results as a whole. But JFed simply went strictly by their badly written criteria instead which is precisely why someone can place 12th and still be named to the World team.

 

[lariko]

I am pretty happy with selections from JSF for Calgary. Looking forward to seeing this team. My only wish it wasn’t Miura, not because I don’t like him, but because I had seen him live already. And I kinda wanted to see Memola win.

 

[yume]

Heh, or maybe top 7. The most badass thing in the entire competition is Moriguchi - a junior pairs skater - winning the National Championship in pairs (Miura/Kihara were unable to participate due to flight cancellation ) and then placing 7th in the singles event. The sheer badassery of this cannot be underestimated. I mean, he beat Kagiyama, which is something he can boast about 15 years from now. And he was very close to beating Miura. His jumps are humongous and he did well enough at Nationals to earn an international assignment for next season…as a singles skater! He can have his pick! I’m way too tickled about this. I’ve been joking about how the Japanese’s men field
is so deep that they have to send some of their guys to other disciplines for a few days now.

Can't agree more on Sumitada. He deserves a senior B this season.

 

[YuBluByMe]

I am pretty happy with selections from JSF for Calgary. Looking forward to seeing this team. My only wish it wasn’t Miura, not because I don’t like him, but because I had seen him live already. And I kinda wanted to see Memola win.

I still consider Memola the favorite for the title. Memola’s maxed out at about a 230ish total score, but if you remember that there will be no quads in the SP and Miura will he behind Memola on PCS in both programs you realize how much more even the playing field actually is.

 

[lariko]

I still consider Memola the favorite for the title. Memola’s maxed out at about a 230ish total score, but if you remember that there will be no quads in the SP and Miura will he behind Memola on PCS in both programs you realize how much more even the playing field actually is.

We’ll see. I would still rather saw another Japanese junior men represented.

 

[KiraraChin]

Should something go awry with Shoma's health or condition, they need a skater who is consistent and who proved his grit at WC, because Sota, as much as I like him, is a huge question mark. He can skate like he did in GPF, or he can skate like he did at Nationals. WC is in Japan, after all, and he might be reminded of Nationals, and flop like he tends to at Nationals.

I think this is a really important point that are lot of people are missing; Sota did amazing in the GP series and he fully deserves his spot. However, we (and JSF) know he's still not super experienced, he can be very affected by nerves at times, not to mention the risk of his injuries flaring up and bothering him/disturbing his training. In many ways, Sota is already filling the role of the 'inexperienced wild card' so when Kazuki did well at Nats JSF took the chance to have a veteran for the 3rd spot.

It's different in ladies where you had the two veterans in the podium already, and everyone else is young and inexperienced so whoever they chose for the 3rd spot will be the wild card anyway.

But Sato’s lowest score in international competition this season is a 249 and Tomono’s highest is a 251 so I definitely disagree about the highs and lows of their scoring potential. Seems to me that Sato with mistakes will outscore a cleanish Tomono more often than not.

I wasn't talking about scoring potential, I was talking about optics and how having meltdown skates in important competitions such as GPF/Nationals is a bad look, especially in the context of a deep field and the home worlds on the line. If you're gonna have a meltdown, better to do it at Neberlhorn like Kazuki did LMAO

Also, I'm not sure if Shun with mistakes would beat cleanish Kazuki, considering that he couldn't beat messy Kazuki at Nats. In fact, I noticed Shun downgraded his BV a lot this season, is he injured? There used to be a huge difference in his BV compared to Kazuki, but now not so much now, and Kazuki has the advantage in PCS (deservedly so).

In any case, Kazuki's scores are on an upward/stable trajectory and are probably going to grow further as he is a skater who tends to peak in the second half of the season. Whereas there is a question mark on whether Shun has peaked or not. If you look into the past few seasons, Shun has peaked in the JGP/GP and then struggled in the second half of the season, due to injury and whatnot. I really hope it's different this time, though