Sakamoto wins figure skating bronze ahead of ROC’s Valieva

Beijing – Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto gained bronze within the Beijing Olympic girls’s singles determine skating competitors Thursday, as Russian Olympic Committee skater Anna Shcherbakova took gold forward of compatriot Alexandra Trusova.

The competitors was overshadowed by the doping controversy involving the ROC’s 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva, who topped Tuesday’s brief program however dropped to fourth total following a mistake-riddled free skate on the Capital Indoor Stadium.

With the authorized combat stemming from Valieva’s optimistic drug check on the December Russian nationwide championships unresolved, the Worldwide Olympic Committee stated it could solely give provisional standing to the outcomes if the prodigy completed on the rostrum.

That final result was averted after Shcherbakova, 17, placed on a flawless free skate for a 175.75-point phase rating and 255.95 complete.

The 17-year-old Trusova scored 177.13 for a 251.73 complete, whereas Sakamoto added 153.29 to her personal-best brief program rating of 79.84 to complete with 233.13 and earn her second bronze of the video games after additionally reaching the rostrum with Japan within the workforce occasion.

Fellow workforce bronze medalist Wakaba Higuchi completed fifth on 214.44, whereas Japan’s different consultant, Mana Kawabe, was twenty third with a complete of 166.73.

Beginning the day in third place, Sakamoto gave one other poised efficiency within the free skate.

The 21-year-old hit all of her parts cleanly, opening with a double axel earlier than nailing a triple lutz and a triple flip-double toe loop mixture. The season-best routine provisionally moved her to second earlier than she was overtaken by Shcherbakova.

Valieva’s look within the competitors pissed off the IOC, Worldwide Skating Union and World Anti-Doping Company, who sought to have her banned after she appealed a doping suspension imposed when she examined optimistic for a prohibited substance typically present in coronary heart treatment.

The results of the check was made public on Feb. 8, a day after she gained Olympic workforce gold with the ROC. Valieva efficiently appealed an automated ban imposed by the Russian doping authority, with the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport upholding the choice on the eve of the brief program.

Valieva, who topped the brief program with 82.16 factors, as soon as once more acquired a loud cheer inside the sector as she took the ice for her free skate. However after commanding performances in each workforce competitors segments and in Tuesday’s brief routine, she fell a number of instances on the best way to a rating of 141.93 and a 224.09 complete.

Skating to music from “The Lion King,” 2018 world championship runner-up Higuchi nailed her opening triple axel however fell on the second a part of a triple lutz-triple toe loop mixture.

The tumble was the one blemish on a program that additionally included a double axel and a triple loop-double toe loop-double loop combo and introduced 140.93.

Kawabe noticed her opening triple axel downgraded and fell on her subsequent leap, a triple lutz, however recovered to finish the remainder of her parts, together with a double axel-triple toe loop-double toe loop mixture, on the best way to 104.04.