Japan’s Mura claims men’s title at Skate Canada

KELOWNA, Canada – Japan’s Takahito Mura upset two-time European champion Javier Fernandez to win the men’s singles title at Skate Canada on Saturday, November 1.

Mura, who was the sixth ranked skater in Japan last season, beat Fernandez by 11 points after performing his free skate to the music of “The Phantom of the Opera”.

“I was really very surprised,” said Mura. “But it is the result of a lot of hard work. I have learned that hard work will translate into high scores.”

Mura becomes the second straight Japanese skater to win the men’s Grand Prix event after Tatsuki Machida triumphed at last week’s Skate America.

Mura earned 173.24 points in the free skate for an overall total of 255.81. Fernandez, of Spain, was second with 244.87, while American Max Aaron finished third at 231.77.

“I am surprised how well my performance was today,” said Mura, who is coached by his father. “Maybe it went so well because I am still jet-lagged and the competition took place around noon, which was unusual and refreshing for me.

“The time between the early morning practice and the competition was not too long, and I still had the feeling of the ice.”

Mura nailed two quadruple jumps in his routine with the second one coming in combination with a triple toe jump. He said this would give him more confidence going forward, especially against Japanese rivals Machida and Olympic champ Yuzuru Hanyu.

“At home, I am also working on the quad Salchow, the quad Lutz and at a national camp I also tried some quad Axels,” Mura said. “At the moment, they are not stable enough for competition, but I hope to show some of them one day in competition.”

‘Not my best day’

Fernandez, who trains in Toronto under former Canadian Olympian Brian Orser, had a disappointing free skate, stumbling through three attempted quads. He fell on his second quad Salchow.

“I fought through my program; it was certainly not my best day,” Fernandez said.

The 2015 Grand Prix final is scheduled to take place in Barcelona in December. Fernandez said he would take plenty of positives from winning silver at the Kelowna competition.

“There might be a bit more pressure because I want to qualify for the Grand Prix Final in my country, but it did not affect me too much today,” he said. “I did the first step to the final. Last year, I was only fifth and third in my Grand Prix events, so this silver medal is a step forward.”

Canada’s Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won the pairs title Saturday, by scoring 210.74 points to beat runners-up Sui Wen-jing and Han Cong of China.

Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov took the bronze.

Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Canada easily won the ice dance with a dominating performance in the free skate Saturday.

Weaver and Poje earned 171.10 overall points to finish almost 20 points in front of runners-up and fellow Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier (152.60).

Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, of the USA, were third at 148.23. – Rappler.com