Yoshida / Morita (Japan) | Figure dancing on ice | 2025 – Beijing

And now to Yotana, Yoshida, and Masaya, Morita. This team have only done one world championships before this event. Less experience than some of the others that we have seen already. What their Olympic spot at this game, the Violent Fantasy of Chinese Turandot. We could just see in the back of shot, Cathy Bede looking like she could barely move. And to the conclusion of the free dance of her students, Yotana, Yoshida, and Masaya, Morita. A team that said that they acknowledge the pressure of this Olympic season, but confident that this experience will make them stronger. And they said that skating with confidence increases their chances of earning a spot. And they were determined to give everything, and everything they did. The program construction here different. Start with the choreographic character step sequence, a unique choice of first element. And to have the twizzles as the penultimate element, the eighth of the nine elements in the free dance is risky. They committed to it. So? Well, there's a lot of elements under review. We have six elements, six out of nine, that the technical panel is looking at the replays in slow motion, checking every detail. Because there were some question marks from this team that made the technical panel say, well, we better look at that. That has an issue potentially. So it was interesting, because I saw Masaya and Morita in the closing section. He looked like he was smiling to Yutana, as if to say, we can let go. And the music is so incredible. This music was, for me, always going to make me think of Xu Zhen and Hong Bozhao. When we were in China, the Chinese Olympic pair champion skated to this so brilliantly in the same color of costume. There's a comparison with it. And it's so arousing and passionate. But you almost can't give too much when a high-pressure event like this, because you cannot risk overcooking anything. Got to be just the right amount of energy for the performance. The choreographic hydroglide. Oh, that's a nice smile between the pairing. And these, so late in the program. They're both at four, so that's good. Plus, Jiuyi, a testament to how well-trained they must be. And actually, really living up to the pressure and scrutiny of a slow motion in regards to the synchronicity within that risky element. I actually think that we've seen potentially stronger skating skills than some of the other teams. So from a program component perspective, maybe they'd lose on that. But it is now so dependent upon what the panel think for the levels. At present, the one-foot turns is a level one for Yutana, a level three for Masaya. So that kind of balances that out, because we've seen twos for the other teams from both partners. OK, we just have to wait. And you can see the tension in the kiss and cry. Waiting for these scores is so critical. They're on the cusp. This is the Olympic spot. This is the definition of some lives. Season's best, 98.41. But that is fourth in the free dance. And that is going to be a problem. The total competition score, 167.63. An Olympic champion. Now, they will hopefully.