KYOTO (Japan), Nov 30: Rising Japanese star Yoshie Onda clinched the women’s title at the NHK Trophy figure-skating tournament Saturday, edging out Russia’s world champion Irina Slutskaya.

Onda, 19, who won gold in Gelsenkirchen, Germany earlier this month, stumbled a bit with her triple axel and triple lutz though she pulled off all six jump combinations in her free programme.

“I can’t believe this, I’m happy,” an all-smiles Onda said after bringing the NHK women’s crown to Japan for the first time in 11 years.

“What I am happy with (about my performances) is that I could make faster spins than last year’s.”

Slutskaya, who took silver at the Salt Lake Olympics, slid into second after her disappointing fourth place in the short programme, pushing local favourites Shizuka Arakawa into third and Fumie Suguri into fourth.

Slutskaya said the season had been “really, really hard” as she was off the ice throughout the summer and was ill for a month.

The Russian only had one month to prepare two new programmes before her first appearance on the circuit, last weekend’s Russian Cup, where she took third.

The NHK Trophy is the last leg of the ISU Grand Prix qualifying series for the final in March in St. Petersburg, Russia. Onda and Slutskaya are two of the medallists eligible to compete in the final.

Russian duo Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh won the ice-dancing crown despite an accidental break midway through the crucial free dance.

The World gold and Olympic silver medallists drew scores ranging from 5.8 to a perfect 6.0 for presentation although a ribbon fell from Lobacheva’s hair, forcing them to stop in the middle of the four-minute routine.

But the audience encouraged them to continue the routine to clinch their second gold of the season, adding to last week’s Russian Cup title.

The husband-and-wife team performed a rock and roll-themed routine, outskating German pair Kati Winkler and Rene Lohse.

World bronze medallists Galit Chait and Sergei Sakhnovski of Israel took third.

In men’s singles, Japan’s Takeshi Honda grabbed the lead after the short programme.

The 21-year-old defending champion landed a quadruple toe loop and showed his mastery of a difficult footwork combination to edge out Russia’s Ilia Klimkin and China’s Li Chengjiang.

Honda, who was victorious at Skate Canada this season, said he had been battling a lower back injury which had worsened during a flight from Canada.

“I have been taking a pain-killer ... but it is not working well,” said Honda, adding that he planned to try acupuncture.

Leading results:

Men’s short program 1. Takeshi Honda (Japan) 0.5 points 2. Ilia Klimkin (Russia) 1.0 3. Chengjiang Li (China) 1.5 4. Jeffrey Buttle (Canada) 2.0 5. Yunfei Li (China) 2.5 6. Yamato Tamura (Japan) 3.0 7. Vincent Restencourt (France) 3.5 8. Hristo Turlakov (Bulgaria) 4.0

Ladies free program 1. Yoshie Onda (Japan) 1.0 2. Irina Slutskaya (Russia) 2.0 3. Shizuka Arakawa (Japan) 3.0 4. Fumie Suguri (Japan) 4.0 5. Galina Maniachenko (Ukraine) 5.0 6. Elena Sokolova (Russia) 6.0 7. Sarah Meier (Switzerland) 7.0 8. Amber Corwin (U.S.) 8.0

Leading overall results 1. Onda 1.5 2= Slutskaya 4.0 2= Arakawa 4.0 4. Suguri 5.5 5. Maniachenko 7.5

Ice Dance, free dance 1. Irina Lobacheva/Ilia Averbukh (Russia) 1.0 2. Kati Winkler/Rene Lohse (Germany) 2.0 3. Galit Chait/Sergei Sakhnovski (Israel) 3.0 4. Isabelle Delobel/Olivier Schoenfelder (France) 4.0 5. Sylwia Nowak/Sebastian Kolinski (Poland) 5.0 6. Megan Wing/Aaron Lowe (Canada) 6.0 7. Ekaterina Gvozdkova/Timurov Alaskhanov (Russia) 7.0 8. Kimberley Navarro/Robert Shmalo (U.S.) 8.0

Leading overall results 1. Lobacheva/ Averbukh 2.0 2. Winkler/Lohse 4.4 3. Chait/Sakhnovski 5.6 4. Delobel/Schoenfelder 8.0 5. Nowak/Kolinski 10.0—Reuters