BEIJING (AP) — Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama and Mai Mihara have won the men's and women's singles titles at the Asia Open figure skating event.
The 18-year-old world silver medalist Kagiyama scored 179.98 in the free skate for a 277.78 total in the 2022 Beijing Olympics test event.
Kagiyama maintained his overnight lead, while Mihara overtook compatriot Kaori Sakamoto in the women’s on Friday.
Kagiyama said that despite the win, his program was far from perfect.
“If you look at it comprehensively, there were a lot of issues,” he told Kyodo news agency. “I’ve added a new quad loop to my free program from this season, and I want to improve to the point that even if I mess up the quad loop, I’ll still do a good job on my other quad jumps.”
In a program with few mistakes, Mihara scored 135.75 points at Capital Indoor Stadium for a total of 203.58.
“I wasn’t as nervous as I was the day before,” Mihara said. “From start to finish I skated without losing my concentration, although I want to improve my accuracy on each jump.”
Strict COVID-19 measure were in effect, with all participants required to stay in a competition bubble.
In late September, the IOC and Beijing Games officials said there would be a 21-day quarantine for non-fully vaccinated athletes, officials and workers at the Feb. 4-20 event, They also said there would be daily testing for vaccinated people and that no tickets would be sold to anyone living outside China.
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