Articles: News Briefs From Around the Globe — By Susan D. Russell

From
Subject
Message
Excerpt

Daisuke Takahashi and Mao Asada Golden at Nationals Daisuke Takahashi rocked the house at the 2011 Japanese national championships in Osaka with a sensational short program that put the homeland superstar on another planet in the world of skating. His performance, which included his first clean quad (toe loop) triple toe combination in competition this season, earned a score of 96.03 and put him more than 10 points ahead of Takahiko Kozuka and 20 ahead of Yuzuru Hanyu. Serious technical issues in the free skate plagued the 2010 World champion who ranked only third in the segment. He fell on an attempted quad, a planned triple Axel combination and the triple flip. Still, Takahashi claimed his fifth national title with 254.60. Kozuka was second (250.97) and Hanyu placed third (241.91). "I feel really disappointed because that was one of my worst free skates,” Takahashi told the Japan Times. In the ladies event, Mao Asada came from behind after the short to also win her fifth national title with 184.07 ahead of Akiko Suzuki (179.27) and Kanako Murakami (172.69). "This was a competition that was held under unusual circumstances for me," Asada tearfully told The Asahi Shimbun. "So I'm happy, and I'm sure my mother is, too. I think she knows I won, even if I am unable to report to her." The top three in both disciplines will represent Japan at the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice. Plushenko Wins Europeans Appeal Following his uncontested victory at Russian nationals, Evgeni Plushenko announced his intention to......