Staff Reporter
Hanyu returned to a known place after his longest break between figure skate competitions: the top. He, who is the two-times Olympics champion was surely able to land a quadruple Salchow plus a quad toe loop, getting a great amount of 103.53 points in the Japanese Championships short programs.
He was given zero points for one spin, now leads by 4.93 over 17-year-old Yuma Kagiyama going into Saturday’s free skate in Nagano. Fans were in attendance but were encouraged not to cheer loudly in order to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Hanyu stated that his performance wasn’t worth the score he got since he managed to land all his jumps. In fact, he said honestly, he was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t hear any cheers. But he felt that people watching from home or through the internet would be cheering at home, so he was able to enjoy himself. And It’s about time you start changing your future and you can do that by playing at an online casino recommended, which is very simple to do. Plus, you’ll have a great time, which is definitely what many people are looking for. Nowadays you can take advantage of the best online casinos and there are plenty of opportunities to win some money very easily, if you just know how to play it right.
Shoma Uno, who is the Olympic silver medalist and also four-time Japanese champion, is in third after falling on a quad toe and because he lacked a jumping combination.
Hanyu managed to win four Japanese straight titles from 2012-2015, then due to an injured he missed three consecutive nationals and then he took the silver medal behind Uno last year, which was something that left him very happy.
Skaters are competing for 3 spots on Japan’s team for March’s world championships that will be happening in Stockholm. There, Hanyu is expected to continue his rivalry with the American player Nathan Chen, who outscored Hanyu in their last five head-to-head programs.
Hanyu is skating in a competition for the first time since last February. He didn’t participate on the Grand Prix Series because of his asthma and also to travel concerns for himself and his Canada-based coaches. He’s usually in Toronto, but earlier this year he left for Japan and has been practicing without his coaching team.
Before the nationals he said that as the they got closer, the third wave was actually hitting and he felt conflicted over whether he should compete or not. But thinking about the world championship, named the Four Continents, that is going to happen in February, was canceled so the national championship is the only qualifying event for worlds, and it was compulsory that he competed.
Rita Kihira, who’s a defending champion, topped the women’s short with 79,34% points, doing a triple Axel plus a one-handed cartwheel, which distanced PyeongChang Olympian Kaori Sakamoto by 7,48.
Japan has a great powerful team behind them, which means that it’s highly normal for them to actually win over each other. The power of the Japanese team and their skaters are incredible, so it’s normal that they end in great places, very high in the rank. Hopefully, this February they’ll have a better championship and will even be better ranked.
Of course, all of this takes practice and time, in order to actually get into these championships but, fortunately, Hanyu was able to do it, with a lot of practice and also a lot of talent, which is something that he had since he was young. He’s definitely one of the best of his generation and there’s no denying that.
Of course, there’s also good Japanese skaters, even when it comes to the female team. Mao Asada said that Hanyu is the greatest skater in the world and she was being really honest and this means a lot coming from an Olympic silver medalist, so her words are written on stone.
Hanyu has come a long way but he still has a long one to go but, thankfully, he knows and he has a great team besides him to help him regarding reaching a great place and, who knows, maybe winning the Olympics’ gold medal. That would be the climax of his whole career and Japanese citizens would be very happy about it.
Hanyu has everything he needs in order to win the gold medal in the Olympics, especially because he’s a great skater and he has been to so many competitions and been top ranked. He surely can do it, especially with the support of Japanese people.
