The second round of the figure skating Grand Prix series, the Canada Tournament, was held on the final day of the competition on the 29th, and Rinka Watanabe won the first victory in the women's singles in her first appearance, and Shoma Uno won the men's singles. Also, as a pair, Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the Grand Prix series for the first time as a pair of Japanese players.
Watanabe, who won the women's singles, was 6th in the first half of the short program, but when she scored the triple axel at the beginning of the free program on the 29th, she put together her performance without any major mistakes and marked 134.32 in total with the short program. 197.59 won the Grand Prix series for the first time.
Rika Kihira, who is looking to recover from a stress fracture in her right ankle this season, finished fifth with a total of 184.33.
In the men's singles, last season's world champion Uno scored 183.17 in the free program and won the short program from 2nd place with a total of 273.15.
17-year-old Yoshio Miura, who led the short program, finished second with a total of 265.29.
In the pair, Miura and Kihara won the short program in the first half and the free program in the second half with the top score of 138.63 and a total of 212.02.
This is the first time that a pair of Japanese athletes has won the Grand Prix series.
In ice dance, Misato Komatsubara and Tim Collett were 7th with a total of 166.06.
Shoma Uno's new program for this season
Shoma Uno is 24 years old from Aichi Prefecture.
He started skating at the age of 5 at a local skating rink after Mao Asada, who would go on to win the women's singles silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics, approached him.
She was an early adopter of the quad jump and she won the 2014 Junior Grand Prix Final with a quad toe loop.
She also won the 2015 World Junior Championships, and from the following season she entered the senior field in earnest and became the first person in the world to succeed in the big move quadruple flip.
After that, he has been actively working on difficult configurations, such as succeeding in quadruple loops and quadruple salchows.
At the Pyeongchang Olympics, which he participated in at the age of 20, he won a silver medal next to Yuzuru Hanyu and showed his ability on the world's highest stage.
After the Olympics, she left coaches Machiko Yamada and Mihoko Higuchi, who had been coaching her until now, and turned to coach Stéphane Lambiel, a silver medalist at the Torino Olympics.
At the 2019 All Japan Championships, he defeated Yuzuru Hanyu, who participated for the first time in four years, and won his fourth consecutive victory.
After that, he continued to be active at the world's top level, and at the Beijing Olympics in February this year, he challenged a high-difficulty composition that jumped 5 quadruple jumps of 4 types, and won the bronze medal, which is the medal for the 2nd consecutive tournament.
Then, at the World Championships in March, he won his first victory, defeating young Yuma Kagiyama, who won the silver medal at the Beijing Games.
This season, we have renewed the short program and free program.
Miura/Kihara pair First win between Japanese players
Miura is 20 years old from Hyogo Prefecture.
He converted from singles to pairs in 2015.
Kihara is 30 years old from Aichi prefecture.
She made the switch from singles to pairs in 2013, and the following year she made her team debut at the Sochi Olympics with Narumi Takahashi.
She is competing in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics in a pair with Miu Suzaki.
Miura and Kihara formed a pair in August 2019 and placed 5th in the Grand Prix series NHK Trophy, which they entered shortly after.
She then trained in Canada, finished 10th at last year's World Championships, and finished on the podium at two Grand Prix events last season.
At the Beijing Olympics in February this year, she contributed to Japan's bronze medal in the team, and in the individual competition, she updated her personal best and finished 7th, the highest ever for a Japanese group in this event.
She finished 2nd at the World Championships in March, and has continued to make strides, becoming the first pair of Japanese athletes to stand on the podium.