Kagiyama defends title at NHK Trophy and Sakamoto leads Japanese sweep in women’s event

By The Associated Press
gold medalists Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the U.S. silver medalists Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko of the U.S., left, and bronze medalists Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania react with their flags after competing the ice dance segment at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series competition in Tokyo, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Hiro Komae]

TOKYO (AP) — Yuma Kagiyama of Japan recovered from an early fall in his free skate to defend his title at the NHK Trophy. He fell on his opening quadruple flip but recovered with a clean quad salchow and a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination. Kagiyama finished with 194.39 points for a total of 300.09. Italy’s Daniel Grassl was second and Japan’s Tatsuya Tsuboi was third. In the women’s event, three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto led a Japanese sweep of the podium with an electrifying performance in the free skate. Two-time and reigning world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States won the ice dance competition.

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