Rika Kihira entered the women's single at the figure skating Chubu Championship as her comeback match, and put together her performance without any major mistakes, such as making consecutive jumps from triples, and finished the short program in 6th place.
Last season, 20-year-old Kihira missed all competitions, including the All Japan Championships in December last year, due to an injury to his right ankle, and missed the Beijing Olympics in February this year.
Although Kihira has not yet fully recovered, she participated in the short program in the first half of the women's singles at the Chubu Championships held in Nagoya on the 24th.
Kihira, who started practicing on the ice in earnest from July this year and started practicing triple jumps last week, started acting with a slightly nervous expression, and the landing of the double axel at the beginning gave him a little balance. Although I broke down, after that I firmly decided on a continuous jump from a triple salchow and a triple toe loop in the second half of the performance.
She also won the highest evaluation level four for two spins and steps, and finished her first real battle in 1 year and 5 months without any major mistakes, finishing the short program with 56.69 and finishing in 6th place. I was.
Her top score was Masano Matsu with 64.70.
The second half of the women's single free will be held on the 25th.
Rika Kihira "It was a performance that leads to the next"
Rika Kihira, who finished the women's singles short program in 6th place, said, "It's only been a week since I started training for the triple jump, but I'm glad I was able to jump properly. It wasn't my best performance, but I finished it without any major mistakes. So it was a performance that led to the next one," he said with relief.
Also, although the injury to his right ankle has not completely healed, he participated in this tournament with the aim of participating in the All Japan Championship. I felt like I was halfway through the competition, so I'm looking forward to being able to skate without worrying about my feet. I was.
Heading into the second half of the free skate, she said, "I want to start off with a goal to finish safely and without aggravating the injury."