Uno, Sakamoto Get Shots at 3rd Straight World Skating Titles

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:27 JST, December 25, 2023

NAGANO — Figure skating stars Shoma Uno and Kaori Sakamoto will both get a chance for a third straight world title after being named Sunday to Japan’s team to next year’s world championships following victories at the national championships over the weekend in Nagano.

Uno, the bronze medalist at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, won his second straight Japan men’s title and sixth overall on Saturday, edging rival Yuma Kagiyama by just under six points. Sakamoto skated nearly flawlessly on Sunday to capture the women’s title for a third straight year by a large margin.

Japan can enter the maximum three entries in both the men’s and women’s events at the world championships, to be held in March in Montreal.

Filling the two other men’s slots were Kagiyama, who won the silver medal ahead of Uno in Beijing, and Kao Miura, the fourth-place finisher at the Japan championships.

The other women making the trip to Montreal will be Mone Chiba, the runner-up to Sakamoto on Sunday, and Hana Yoshida, who placed seventh but was the bronze medalist at the ISU Grand Prix Final.