He has been counted as among the most celebrated and acclaimed figure skaters in the world, and yet it would appear that Takahiko Kozuka fell way short of his desired mark at the short program at a packed Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
And on the evidence of the latest reports, it is learned that the ace Japanese figure skating champion, reportedly regretted missing a step, while working on his Triple Axel, and although he kept on working it, the mistake eventual cost him dear, and consigned him way off his desired mark.
.And just to lay a sense of the sheer count of laurels, that this figure skating ace has copped, over the course of his glittering career, Takahiko Kozuka is the 2009 Four Continents bronze medalist, the 2008 Grand Prix Final silver medalist, the 2006 World Junior Champion and the 2007and 2008 Japanese silver medalist. As of January 2010, he was ranked 11th in the world.
In the 200 and 2010 seasons he won the silver medal at the 2009 Rostelecom Cup and was placed seventh in the 2009 NHK Trophy. He further won the bronze medal at the 2010 Japanese National Championships and thereby qualified to compete at the 2010 Winter Olympics and at the 2010 World Figure Skating Championships.
And for someone who was counted among the strongest medal prospects in the ongoing Winter Olympics, in Vancouver, Canada, Kozuka’s anti –climactic harvest in the figure skating short program, would surely have left his fans dismayed.