Miura completes Japanese sweep at Cup of China

Kao Miura yesterday completed a Japanese sweep with a commanding victory in the men’s program at the Cup of China.

A day after compatriot Chiba Mone won the women’s title, Miura posted a personal-best 190.35 in the free skate for an overall career-best score of 293.25 to build on his lead from Friday’s short program.

The 21-year-old Miura finished well clear of second-placed Vladislav Dikidzhi (282.44). Evgeni Semenenko was third with 281.62 points. It was Dikidzhi’s first career Grand Prix medal.

Japan’s Kao Miura performs during the men’s free skate segment of the Cup of China in Shenzhen yesterday.

Photo: Reuters

“It’s turned out to be a very happy day for me,” said Miura, who finished second at the Grand Prix de France. “It was the best performance of my career so thank you.”

“At the last Grand Prix Final I was in three years ago, which was also in China, I ran up a fever and did not perform as well as I could have. This year’s Final is in China again so I’m looking to redeem myself,” he said.

Miura’s compatriot Sato Shun, who won Olympic bronze in Milan, finished fourth on 277.20 after popping a couple of jumps.

Olympic champion Mikhail Shaidorov was fifth on 263.49 and missed out on qualification for the final.

Miura, who fell just 0.06 short of his personal best in Friday’s short program, pumped his fist several times as the music ended on his near-flawless Jekyll and Hyde routine, celebrating the second Grand Prix title of his career.

On Saturday, China edged the returning Russian quad queen of figure skating, Alexandra Ignatova, who landed a quad lutz early in what was the highest-scoring free skate aiming to be the first mother to win a Grand Prix event.

The 22-year-old Ignatova, who welcomed a baby son last year, also was competing in her first major international event since taking silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics as Alexandra Trusova.

Chiba led after the short program and produced an error-free skate to the classical piano of Clair de Lune by composer Claude Debussy.

The fourth-placed finisher in Milan at this year’s Olympics, Chiba tearfully put her hands to her face on completing her program.

Her winning total score of 224.48 was just three points ahead of Ignatova, whose free skate score of 148.90 edged Chiba by 0.5.