Feb 16, 2010
Vancouver (AFP) - Daisuke Takahashi boosted Japan's bid for their first medal in Olympic men's figure skating as he virtually tied with titleholder Yevgeny Plushenko and world champion Evan Lysacek in Tuesday's short programme.
Takahashi, the 2007 world silver medallist, is sitting third just 0.60 points behind Russia's Plushenko with American Lysacek a fractional 0.05 ahead of the Japanese skater going into Thursday's free skating final.
"It was my best performance of the season," said Takahashi, who scored 90.25 points after Plushenko topped the leaderboard with 90.85.
"The audience was really good, there were lots of fans and Japanese flags and that really helped. I am glad because I haven't scored so high in a long while."
The 23-year-old claimed his fourth national title in December, underlining his comeback from knee injury which forced him to miss the 2008-2009 season.
"I'm not that much behind Plushenko on points. It is great that I don't feel under pressure going into the free skate," the Japanese added.
Takahashi's score bettered his personal best of 89.95 in competitions sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU), although he scored higher points in domestic events.
Nobunari Oda, 22, the runner-up to Lysacek at the Grand Prix Final in December, is within striking distance of the podium as he sits fourth with 84.85 points.
Another Japanese, 20-year-old Takahiko Kozuka, placed eighth with 79.59.
"My biggest task in free skating is to finish without a mistake and keep up the levels of my spins and steps," said Takahashi, who finished eighth on his Olympic debut in Turin in 2006.
Takahashi skated a clean short programme, opening with a triple axel and a triple lutz-triple toeloop combination.
Skating to the music of Eye by Coba, he hit level four in a flying sit spin, a straight line step sequence and change-foot spins. He punched the air at the end to a roaring crowd including Japanese waving scores of red-sun national flags.
Unlike Plushenko, neither the Japanese trio nor Lysacek attempted the high-scoring but technically demanding quadruple jump.
But the Japanese have repeatedly said that a quadruple could help them to the Olympic podium.
"Since the Nagano Olympics so many people are trying the quad jump. I think it's necessary for something like the Olympics," said Takahashi.
"To be successful I think I would like to include the quad jump in my performance. I think it's important for the future of figure skating."
Oda, who won two Grand Prix events in Paris and Beijing this season, said:
"I intend to work it in my free programme after seeing how I do it tomorrow."
Kozuka, the 2008 Grand Prix Final runner-up, said:
"I have nailed the (quadruple) jump at my will in training every day. I believe my coach (Nobuo Sato) will let me challenge that."
The Japanese men are hoping to emulate the success of their female compatriots in the Olympics.
Shizuka Arakawa won the women's title in Turin to lift Asia's first Olympic figure skating gold medal. In 1992, Midori Ito won the women's silver.
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