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https://number.bunshun.jp/articles/-/855815?page=3
Grassl showed his mettle as the crowd gave him a thunderous cheer. When he landed the quadruple Lutz at the beginning, the crowd stomped their feet and made loud noises. It seemed that applause and cheers were not enough for him. After his landing of a quadruple flip and a loop, the fans cheered with all their might for the young Italian as he climbed the steep peak of the mountain.
The crowd cheered loudly, "Oh my God, what is this? !"
He gave a good performance, landing all the jumps. Actually, there were some unclear edge take offs and some under-rotations, but for the audience, it was "no mistake.” Cheers, applause, claps, instrument noises, foot stomps, the audience made all kinds of "noises". And then it was Miura's turn to skate.
“The two skaters before me were getting a big cheer, but the volume reached its maximum. I was like, ‘What's this?’ I can't hear anything (not even the coach's voice)! I didn't want to skate following the Italian."
For 17-year-old Miura, it was the first time to compete in such an electrified international competition. Throughout the three years of the COVID pandemic, the competitions in Japan have been either without spectators, or with "no cheering, only clapping," rules.
"In recent years in Japan, it was claps, standing ovations, and a little bit of buzz," he said. "It reminded me of the atmosphere of the venue a few years ago."
What came to Miura's mind then was the 2018 Kanto Junior Championships. It was a three-way battle with Sato and Yuma Kagiyama, and Miura was the last skater after Kagiyama and Sato.
“In the short program, Yuma was in first place, Shun was in second, and I was in third," said Miura. “But I was the last skater by lottery drawing.”
“Then I was completely overwhelmed by the atmosphere, and scored 90 points in FS (laughs). I bombed big time.”
Yamamoto and Uno's performances were in contrast to Miura's.
Miura's mind was not where it should have been even before his performance. His opening quadruple loop turned into a triple, and he also made a mistake on his two quadruple jumps in the second half of his performance. After his performance, he remained motionless with a downcast look on his face.
"I was done. Everything went wrong. I couldn't concentrate, and my legs were shaking so much that even an amateur eye could see it in my steps. They were not the jumps the way I wanted to jump at all. I had nothing to offer in terms of performance and expression."
After Miura, Yamamoto won the silver medal with a perfect performance, and spoke as follows
“I used to tune out the other competitors' performances, but this season, seeing everyone trying to give it their best, it gives me power. As a competitor, that kind of mindset is something I have developed a lot. This time, too, as the amazing performances continued, I felt that I should give all my best too, and I was filled with joy."
It was the spirit of a 22-year-old who had been through so much before standing on this stage.
Uno also landed five quadruple jumps to become the first GP Final champion with a high total score of over 300 points. Uno commented as follows.
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