Kaori Sakamoto (21 = Sysmex) won the bronze medal. She was free and she scored a personal best of 153.29 points, marking a total of 233.13 points. She stood on the podium for the fourth Japanese women since Mao Asada, the silver medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
He showed a big growth from the 6th place prize in the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018. Her gold medal was won by Anna Shelvakova (ROC) and her silver medal was won by Alexandra Trusova (ROC). The 15-year-old Camilla Wariewa ROC, swayed by the doping breach, was fourth.
Sakamoto was third in the short program (SP) at this tournament with “Overthrow Russia”. He broke into the ROCs of Wariewa, Shelvakova and Trusova. She showed one after another a high degree of perfection even though she was free.
Trusova just before gave a shocking score and free performance in the venue. At the beginning, I landed a flowing double axel. The 3-turn Lutz is also smooth. Continuous jumps from 3-turn flips and 3-turn salchow are not dangerous. The continuous three-turn jump had a height in the toe loop in the latter half, and the three consecutive jumps were also excellent in stability.
All jumps were successful, including the last three-turn loop. Acting with height and speed. After finishing, he showed a quiet guts pose.
Sakamoto smiled with a big smile, “I was so surprised that I couldn’t recognize the 3rd place when I first saw the score.
Team competitions that won bronze medals, and individuals. Due to Wariewa’s doping problem, Sakamoto worked hard while the SP and free final groups were noisy from practice. Four years ago, two years after Kobe Noda High School, something went wrong with his body after participating in the team competition at the Pyeongchang Olympics. He develops acute gastroenteritis from excessive stress. He was taken to the emergency room and was busy in time for the individual battle. He laughed after the SP of this tournament.
“The difference from four years ago is that I was able to spend my time in good health without getting sick even once from groups to individuals. I think that the power is definitely higher than it was four years ago.”
The next season of the Pyeongchang Olympics won the All Japan Championship. However, in the 19-20 season, he sank to 6th place in the championship, and not all went smoothly.
“I was thinking that training was hard and I was tired of practicing every day. I wonder how long it will last. But when I ended up laughing at the match, I said,” I can laugh because of that pain. I felt that. From that point on, the more I pushed in, the more I thought I would be able to achieve satisfactory results. ” And this season she returned to the Queen of Japan. Sakamoto marked her growth on her Olympics.[Wataru Matsumoto]
◆ Kaori Sakamoto Born April 9, 2000 in Kobe. She started her competition at the age of four. She finished 3rd in the World Junior Championships in March 2017. In December of the same year, she was second in the All Japan Championship and she was in the Pyeongchang Olympics. She is 6th in the Olympics. She won the All Japan Championship in December last year for the first time in three years, and she was nominated for the Beijing Olympics. Her hobbies are swimming and origami. Kobe Noda High School-Kobe Gakuin University. She belongs to Sysmex. She receives guidance from coach Sonoko Nakano and others. She is 159 cm.
