Three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto repeated as Skate Canada champion, extending a 22-month winning streak in top-level figure skating events.

Sakamoto, a 24-year-old from Japan, became the oldest women’s singles skater to ever win Skate Canada and the oldest to win a Grand Prix event since American Ashley Wagner at Skate America 2016.

Sakamoto scored 201.21 points between two programs at Skate Canada in Halifax, winning with 9.05 over compatriot Rino Matsuike. Sakamoto held on despite a fall during Saturday’s free skate.

Matsuike placed 10th in Friday’s short program and won the free skate.

SKATE CANADA: Broadcast schedule

Hana Yoshida completed Japan’s podium sweep. Japan last won the women’s event at a fully international Grand Prix in 2008, at the home event, the NHK Trophy (Mao Asada, Akiko Suzuki, Yukari Nakano).

Since finishing third at the December 2022 Grand Prix Final, Sakamoto has won her second and third world titles in a row, her third and fourth national titles and four Grand Prix Series events.

Last season she became the first woman to win three consecutive world titles since American Peggy Fleming from 1966-68. Next March she could become the first woman to win four in a row since American Carol Heiss won five in a row between 1956 and 1960.

Two-time U.S. champion Alysa Liu dropped from second place after Friday’s short program to finish sixth overall. Liu competed in the Grand Prix for the first time in three years, having completed a two-year retirement earlier this year.

Earlier Saturday, world champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada repeated as Skate Canada pairs winners despite a flawed free skate.

Stellato-Dudek, a 41-year-old who won the silver medal for the US at the World Junior Championships in 2000, broke her own record as the oldest Grand Prix winner in any discipline.

World champion Ilia Malinin topped the men’s short program as he searches for a second Grand Prix victory in as many weeks. He landed a quadruple flip, triple Axel and a quad Lutz-triple toe loop combination.

Malinin, a 19-year-old from Virginia, three-peated at Skate America last week.

Skate Canada is the second of six competitions in the fall Grand Prix Series, which qualifies skaters for the December Grand Prix Finals.

The best six per discipline qualify for the Final. The top skaters each compete twice over the six-event series and then combine their results to determine who makes it to the finals. The final is often a foretaste of the world championships the following March.

Skate Canada 2024 Results

Women’s Final
1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) — 201.21
2. Rino Matsuike (JPN) – 192.16
3. Hana Yoshida (JPN) – 191.37
4. Kimmy Repond (SUI) — 191.07
5. Madeline Schizas (CAN) – 190.04
6. Alysa Liu (USA) – 187.69
7. Elyce Lin-Gracey (USA) – 182.37
8. Kaiya Rider (CAN) – 162.32
9. Ekaterina Kukarova (POL) – 162.07
10. Sara-Maude Dupuis (CAN) – 160.46
11. Wi Seo-Yeong (KOR) – 140.85
12. Kim Ye-Lim (KOR) – 136.14

Final pairs
1. Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps (CAN) — 197.33
2. Ekaterina Geynish/Dmitrii Chigirev (UZB) — 189.65
3. Anastasia Golubeva/Hektor Giotopoulos Moore (AUS) — 186.14
4. Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (DU) – 184.30
5. Emily Chan/Spencer Howe (USA) – 178.31
6. Ioulia Chtchetinina/Michal Wozniak (POL) — 173.84
7. Daria Danilova/Michel Tsiba (NED) — 171.02
8. Kelly Ann Laurin/Loucas Ethier (CAN) – 163.60

Short program for men
1. Ilia Malinin (USA) — 106.22
2. Shun Sato (JPN) – 96.52
3. Sota Yamamoto (JPN) – 92.16
4. Cha Jun-Hwan (KOR) – 88.38
5. Stephen Gogolev (CAN) – 82.70
6. Vladimir Litvintsev (AZE) – 79.11
7. Jason Brown (USA) – 79.03
8. Luc Economides (FRA) – 77.87
9. Aleksa Rakic ​​​​(CAN) – 76.74
10. Gabriele Frangipani (ITA) – 76.18
11. Mark Gorodnitsky (ISR) – 71.79
12. Roman Sadovsky (CAN) – 63.37

Rhythmic dance
1. Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier (CAN) — 86.44
2. Marjorie Lajoie/Zachary Lagha (CAN) – 77.34
3. Evgeniia Lopareva/Geoffrey Brissaud (FRA) — 76.76
4. Emilea Zingas/Vadym Kolesnik (USA) – 75.63
5. Natalie Taschlerova/Filip Taschler (CZE) – 74.97
6. Oona Brown/Gage Brown (USA) — 72.18
7. Emily Bartti/Ian Somerville (USA) – 71.48
8. Hannah Lim/Ye Quan (KOR) – 70.64
9. Alicia Fabbri/Paul Ayer (CAN) – 70.10
10. Holly Harris/Jason Chan (AUS) – 64.11