Rika Kihira landed her quadruple salchow for the first time in competition as she defended her Japan national figure skating championship on Sunday at the Big Hat arena in Nagano.
Leading after the short program, Kihira topped other skaters in the free skate as well to win with 234.24 points. Kaori Sakamoto finished second with a score of 222.17, while Satoko Miyahara finished third with 209.75.
All three will represent Japan at the world championships in Stockholm next March.
Kihira started her free skate by nailing the quad salchow. She became the first person from Japan to successfully land a quad jump since Miki Ando became the first woman in the world to do so as a junior in 2002.
As this event is not governed by the International Skating Union, Kihira's jump is not officially recognized by the ISU. Nevertheless, the judges gave Kihira a grade of execution score of 3.19 points, which is at the higher end of the scale.
"If I don't make that jump, I can't move on to the next stage," Kihira said.
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