Japan’s Kihira rallies for ladies’ title at Four Continents Championships
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Japan’s Rika Kihira was steadfast that she was going to land a triple axel at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championship.
She didn’t land it during the short program and found herself in fifth place going into Friday night’s free skate. She successfully nailed it on her first jump and put together a flawless four-minute program set to “Beautiful Storm” by Jennifer Thomas.
“I was hardly able to practice my triple axel in this rink but I was determined, very focused, and kept my concentration,” Kihira said.
Kihira scored 153.14 points in the free skate and finished with 221.99 points, easily outdistancing Kazakhstan’s Elizabet Tursynbaeva by more than 14 points. Her triple axel earned 10.51 points but she also had a pair of combinations that scored well — triple lutz-triple toe loop combination (11.95) and triple lutz-double toe loop-double loop (11.39).
“I was able to leave yesterday’s mistake behind. During this season, I learned how to keep my concentration in my free skating no matter what happens in my short program,” said Kihira, who won the Grand Prix Final earlier this season.
Tursynbaeva — who had 139.37 points in the free skate and 207.46 overall — said she didn’t expect to be on the podium. She wasn’t the only one who was surprised. She had planned to do a triple lutz on her opening jump, but instead attempted a quad salchow. She got all four rotations in but was unable to land it.
“I’m happy I attempted it and will keep trying until I land it. I started working on the jump in 2016 but only started putting it in my program a couple weeks ago,” she said. “I will have the same programs at Worlds, so I will keep working on the programs, I want to do better next time and will try the quad again.”