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Suguri on the rise
Japanese skater's hot, Ohs is not at Skate Canada
The 17-year-old from the Tokyo suburb of Chiba, a virtual unknown to North American skating fans, wowed the crowd here by winning the short program over a field that includes four women who finished in the top 10 at the world championships last year.
Suguri, who was second at the 1997 Japanese nationals, went on to finish 18th at the world championships that year, then was fifth at the NHK Trophy in Japan last fall before a hip injury ended her season.
Last night, she showed both poise and confidence as she skated to music from Fantasia, spinning her own fantasy with a clean program that included a triple lutz-double toe combination, a triple flip and graceful spins and spirals.
"Really, I can't believe it because this is a very big competition for me," said Suguri, who learned to speak English when she visited Toronto several times over the past four years to work with choreographer Lori Nichol. "I was just thinking I will do like in practice."
Suguri edged out Ukrainian Elena Liashenko, who also skated clean, for top spot. Russian Irina Slutskaya, the world silver medallist last year, was third despite a couple of faults, but her presentation was superior and kept her in contention for gold in the free skate tomorrow.
Canadian Keyla Ohs was 10th of the 11 women.
Suguri's connection to Canada is noteworthy because the last great Japanese women's skater, 1994 world champ Yuka Sato, trained in Gloucester with coach Peter Dunfield.
Suguri's idol is world champ Michelle Kwan of the U.S., whose family is of Japanese descent. Her goal this season is to skate against her idol at the worlds.
"I have to win Japanese nationals, because only one Japanese girl can go to worlds. I really want to go because two years ago (I was there) and I missed going to worlds last year."
Ohs, who has suffered through a shaky week of practice, was unable to raise her performance level in her program.
She two-footed the landing of the triple lutz on her combination, then hesitated before adding on the double toe. Later, with her confidence sagging, she missed her attempt at a triple flip.
"There is just something that is not clicking," Ohs said, "and I haven't been able to figure it out yet."