SATO, who won his first bronze medal at the Grand Prix Final
(Photo: Raniero Corbelletti/AFLO)
SATO, who competed in the men’s singles GP Final (December 6 to 7, 2024 in Grenoble, France), finished third overall and won the bronze medal. SATO, who competed in the GP Final for the first time in two years, tried a bold technique, a four-turn Lutz jump, at the beginning of the short program, but unfortunately fell. After that, he calmly completed a combination jump (four-turn toe loop + triple toe loop) without any mistakes and finished fourth in the short program with 86.28 points.
In the free-skating program the next day, he completed the four-turn Lutz jump at the beginning of the program and earned a high performance score. Although he fell on the subsequent four-turn flip jump, he made no mistakes on all the subsequent jumps. SATO added points on all his jumps and finished third in the free-skating program with 184.54 points. With a total of 270.82 points, he won the bronze medal, ranking third overall, and stood on his first podium at the GP Final.
Graduate HIGUCHI Wakaba (graduate of the School of Commerce in 2023) competed in the women’s singles GP Final and finished fourth overall. Although unfortunately she missed the podium, she performed brilliantly at the Grand Prix Final, her second appearance in seven years.
≪Japanese version≫In the free-skating program the next day, he completed the four-turn Lutz jump at the beginning of the program and earned a high performance score. Although he fell on the subsequent four-turn flip jump, he made no mistakes on all the subsequent jumps. SATO added points on all his jumps and finished third in the free-skating program with 184.54 points. With a total of 270.82 points, he won the bronze medal, ranking third overall, and stood on his first podium at the GP Final.
Graduate HIGUCHI Wakaba (graduate of the School of Commerce in 2023) competed in the women’s singles GP Final and finished fourth overall. Although unfortunately she missed the podium, she performed brilliantly at the Grand Prix Final, her second appearance in seven years.