Mao Asada routed the ladies field at the Japanese Championships yesterday to clinch a spot on the Olympic team. Akiko Suzuki, also an Olympic newbie, and Miki Ando, who is making her second consecutive trip to the Games, join her.
Daisuke Takahashi continued his comeback season by winning the men's event, while Nobunari Oda and Takahiko Kozuka were second and third, respectively. All three will compete in Vancouver, as will the brother/sister ice dance team of Cathy and Chris Reed.
Asada's victory at Nationals helped turn around a sour season thus far. She was handily defeated by World champ Yu-Na Kim in Paris in October, and then fell to sixth at the Rostelecom Cup a week later. Though her triple Axel was downgraded in the short program this weekend, she hit a beautiful triple Axel/double toe loop combination in her free skate to take the title by more than 8 points overall. While her programs this season are still dreadful, Asada still has every ounce of talent it takes to be an Olympic champion.
Suzuki (shown above), only fourth after the short program, rallied to finish second in the free skate and overall. She landed seven solid triple jumps, with a minor, uncharacteristic trip being her only mistake. After battling back from anorexia at age 24, Suzuki appears to be the heavy emotional favorite heading into the Games. However, she is also shaping up to be a heavy medal contender, too. Already this season, Suzuki has defeated World silver medalist Joannie Rochette of Canada, the American trio of Rachael Flatt, Mirai Nagasu, and Ashley Wagner, and Italy's Carolina Kostner. With continued improvement, I have no doubt that Suzuki could be the darkhorse in Vancouver, with the potential to defeat teammates Asada and Ando, who have looked shaky at best so far this season. Ando, who clinched an Olympic spot by virtue of her silver-medal finish at the Grand Prix Final earlier this month, skated cautiously and conservatively here, finishing a distant fourth.
Perhaps the most unlucky skater once again is Yukari Nakano. Four years ago, she won bronze at the Grand Prix Final and defeated Ando at Nationals, yet she was still left off the team. Ando was sent to Torino where she finished 15th, while Nakano went to the World Championships a month later and was fifth. Even with a third place finish this year at Nationals, Nakano finds herself off the team once again because Ando was already guaranteed a spot as the highest Japanese GPF finisher. After being so successful in the 2.5 years following Torino, Nakano has been on somewhat of a downward slide since last year's Nationals, and her shaky performances on the Grand Prix series this year coupled with an underrotated triple Lutz in her long program yesterday means she'll be watching the action from home this February.
The Japanese ladies are arguably the deepest in the world, and any one of them could win an Olympic medal. The Olympic picture is rapidly developing with only 58 days until the ladies short program...
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Japanese Nationals results:
1. Mao Asada (204.62)
2. Akiko Suzuki (195.90)
3. Yukari Nakano (195.73)
4. Miki Ando (185.44)
5. Kanako Murakami (176.61)
6. Haruka Imai (166.16)
7. Fumie Suguri (161.29)
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