NHK Trophy
The fourth and final Grand Prix competition of the season played out in Osaka, Japan. Due to that nation’s border restrictions and quarantine rules, all but one of the skaters competing at NHK Trophy represented the host country. That exception was South Korea’s Young You, who is co-coached by Mie Hamada in Osaka and Tammy Gambill in the U.S.
With a number of its top skaters training abroad who would have had to enter a two-week quarantine upon returning home, the Japanese federation instead offered some of its rising young stars the opportunity to test their mettle at a senior competition.
With Japan’s leading lady, Rika Kihira, absent from the field, the door was open for a number of talented skaters to capture the top step of the podium with Kaori Sakamoto leading the way.
The Grand Prix Series has always been an up and down affair for Sakamoto but this season, looking fit and prepared, the 20-year-old was on top of her game.
Though she does not have the technical arsenal of some of her rivals, Sakamoto has strong and explosive jumps, which were on display in her short program, set to Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Concerto in D Minor” and “Bach à la Jazz” by Matt Herskowitz and Mary Kerr.
Sakamoto opened her routine with a solid double Axel, followed by a triple Lutz and a triple flip-triple toe loop combination. Though two of her spins and the footwork sequence were graded Level 3, it was enough on this night and she captured the lead with 75.60 points.
Last to skate in the free and performing her innovative “The Matrix” program from last season, Sakamoto could not put a foot wrong, reeling off
