[ICE TIME] Yuma Kagiyama and Kaori Sakamoto Dealt Shock Losses at the Asian Winter Games
Jack Gallagher 
Asian Winter Games silver medalists Yuma Kagiyama (left) and Kaori Sakamoto compete in Harbin, China, on February 13, 2025. (©KYODO)
Read the full story on SportsLook - [ICE TIME] Yuma Kagiyama and Kaori Sakamoto Dealt Shock Losses at the Asian Winter Games
What looked like an easy walk in the park for Yuma Kagiyama and Kaori Sakamoto at the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, China, turned out to be anything but. Both were beaten by South Korean rivals on Thursday, February 13.
Kagiyama and Sakamoto led after their respective short programs, but could not hold on in their free skates. They were forced to settle for silver medals instead of gold. Kagiyama led Jun Hwan Cha by more than seven points after Tuesday's short program, while Sakamoto led Chaeyeon Kim by just over three points.
Mistake-filled free skates by Kagiyama and Sakamoto helped Cha and Kim come from behind to top the podium at the quadrennial regional competition.
Cha won with a total score of 281.69 points, with Kagiyama second at 272.76. Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov took the bronze on 246.01. Shun Sato finished a disappointing fifth with 232.10.
Kim claimed the gold with a tally of 219.44, with Sakamoto coming in second on 211.90 and Hana Yoshida placing third at 205.20.
Multiple Stumbles for Kagiyama in the Free Skate
The 21-year-old Kagiyama fell twice in his free skate to "Ameska" and "Romanza" and managed only a level three on his step sequence. Kagiyama went down on a quadruple lutz and a triple axel. He did land two quads and five triples but doubled the back end of a planned triple toe loop/triple toe loop combination jump midway through his program.
"I'm working on a few things with my program at the moment," Kagiyama was quoted as saying by olympics.com. "Of course, the performance was very frustrating but I wasn't afraid to try, which I think will pay off at the worlds."
Added Kagiyama, "I have to improve the quad lutz by a lot but before that, I need to make sure I execute the quad flip as that gets the program going. But I left it all out there tonight. It's a little bit different from the (Finlandia Trophy) when I felt like I had more to give."
Continue reading the full story on SportsLook.
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Author: Jack Gallagher
The author is a veteran sports journalist and one of the world's foremost figure skating experts. Find articles and podcasts by Jack on his author page, and find him on X (formerly Twitter) @sportsjapan.
