Kaori Sakamoto eyeing quad jumps as way to keep up with Russians

Beijing – Kaori Sakamoto is feeling the strain to do quadruple jumps as extra Russian skaters efficiently land them, she mentioned Friday, a day after incomes bronze within the ladies’s singles on the Beijing Olympics.

“Yearly the Russians simply preserve producing skaters that may bounce the quad, and each time I see that I’m amazed … I additionally see that and really feel {that a} quad is admittedly obligatory (for my efficiency),” the 21-year-old instructed a information convention.

Sakamoto gained the bronze medal with a complete rating of 233.13 within the ladies’s singles occasion, whereas Russian teenager Kamila Valieva, the favourite and the chief after the brief program, stumbled repeatedly throughout her routine and completed fourth amid a doping controversy.

The moderator of the information convention didn’t settle for questions associated to the doping scandal.

Regardless of being completely satisfied along with her rating, Sakamoto felt she wanted to do extra.

“I actually felt (at this Olympics) that I couldn’t stand an opportunity in opposition to the Russians except I might get the entire technical scores I can,” she added.

Sakamoto additionally skated the ladies’s free phase within the group competitors, once more profitable bronze behind the Russian Olympic Committee, with Valieva main the Russians to gold. The medal ceremony of that competitors won’t be held as a consequence of Valieva’s optimistic check for a banned drug.