- Source: Utana Yoshida
Utana Yoshida (吉田 唄菜, Yoshida Utana, born September 6, 2003) is a Japanese ice dancer, who currently competes with Masaya Morita. Together, they are the 2023–24 Japanese national bronze medalists.
With her former skating partner, Shingo Nishiyama, she was a two-time Japanese national junior ice dance champion (2020, 2021) and a 2020 Winter Youth Olympics champion in the team event.
Personal life
Yoshida was born on September 6, 2003, in Kurashiki, Japan. In 2021, after graduating from N High School, she enrolled at Doshisha University's Faculty of Commerce.
She looks up to ice dance teams, Carreira/Ponomarenko and Lajoie/Lagha.
Career
= Early career
=Yoshida began skating in 2010 after being inspired from watching Mao Asada perform at the 2010 Winter Olympics. Orginally, a ladies' singles skater, she placed seventh at the novice level at the Chu-Shikoku-Kyushu Regional in 2014, and thus failed to advance to the 2014–15 Japan Championships. Yoshida switched to ice dance in 2016, partnering with Takumi Sugiyama. Yoshida / Sugiyama were fourth at the 2016–17 Japan Junior Championships and won the advanced novice gold medal at the 2017 Mentor Toruń Cup. Yoshida / Sugiyama split at the end of the season, and she was partnerless for two seasons.
= Partnership with Nishiyama
=2019–2020 season
Yoshida teamed up with Shingo Nishiyama in early 2019 after a tryout arranged by the Japan Skating Federation in fall 2018 and moved to train with him and his coaches at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club in Canada in February 2019.
In their first season as a partnership, Yoshida/Nishiyama placed sixth at both 2019 JGP United States and 2019 JGP Italy. They then won gold at the Western Sectional and advanced to the 2019–20 Japan Junior Championships, where they again won gold, ahead of Ayumi Takanami / Yoshimitsu Ikeda. As a result, Yoshida/Nishiyama were assigned to the 2020 World Junior Championships and the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. They were invited to skate in the gala at the 2019 NHK Trophy as junior national champion.
At the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, Yoshida / Nishiyama placed sixth in the ice dance event with a new personal best, following a sixth-place rhythm dance and a fourth-place free dance. They were chosen by draw to be part of Team Courage for the mixed-NOC team event, alongside singles' skaters Arlet Levandi of Estonia and Ksenia Sinitsyna of Russia and pairs team Alina Butaeva / Luka Berulava of Georgia. Yoshida/Nishiyama won the free dance portion of the team event, ahead of both the silver and bronze medalists from the individual ice dance event, to help Team Courage win the gold medal.
Yoshida/Nishiyama set a goal of being in the top ten at the 2020 World Junior Championships. They placed twelfth in Tallinn.
2020–2021 season
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Junior Grand Prix, where Yoshida/Nishiyama would have competed, was cancelled. In November, they won their second consecutive junior national title at the 2020–21 Japan Junior Championships.
Yoshida/Nishiyama announced their split in January 2021. In May 2021, Yoshida announced her partnership with American skater Seiji Urano for Japan.
= Partnership with Urano
=2021–2022 season
Yoshida/Urano did not appear in any major international or domestic events before announcing their split in December 2021.
= Partnership with Morita
=2023–2024 season
In April 2023, then partnerless Japanese ice dancer, Masaya Morita sent a DM to Yoshida's Instagram account, asking if she would be interested in having a tryout with him which she agreed to. The two would meet up at the Okayama International Skating Rink in Okayama, where their tryout was monitored by Morita's coach, Cathy Reed and Yoshida's coach, Rie Arikawa. This tryout would prove successful and end with Yoshida/Morita agreeing to pair up on that same day. Yoshida would move to Uji, Kyoto to train with Morita at the Kinoshita Skate Academy under coaches, Reed and Arikawa.
Yoshida/Morita made their international competitive debut on the Challenger circuit at the 2023 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb, where they finished in fifth place. They next competed at the 2023–24 Japan Championships, which proved to be a tight contest between them and two other senior teams. They finished third in the rhythm dance after Morita fell in their twizzle sequence, coming behind Yoshida's former partner Nishiyama and his new partner Azusa Tanaka and the four-time national champions Komatsubara/Koleto. Yoshida/Morita then won the free dance, but remained in third place overall for the bronze medal. Yoshida said that they were "happy to have skated at Nationals," but admitted they had come just short of their goal of hitting 110 points in the free dance.
With the close result at the national championships, the Japan Skating Federation opted to postpone assigning Japan's lone berth at the 2024 World Championships pending the results of all three teams at the 2024 Four Continents Championships. Traveling to Shanghai to compete, Yoshida/Morita finished tenth overall, but more than sixteen points behind national champions Komatsubara/Koleto.
2024–25 season
Yoshita/Morita started the season by competing at the 2024 CS Nebelhorn Trophy, where they finished in fifth place. Going on to make their Grand Prix series debut, the duo finished ninth at the 2024 NHK Trophy.
Programs
= With Morita
== With Nishiyama
=Competitive highlights
= Ice dance with Morita
=GP: Grand Prix; CS: Challenger Series
= Ice dance with Nishiyama
=JGP: Junior Grand Prix
= Ice dance with Sugiyama
=Detailed results
= With Morita
=Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.
= With Nishiyama
=Junior results
= With Sugiyama
=References
External links
Utana Yoshida / Masaya Morita at the International Skating Union
YOSHIDA Utana / MORITA Masaya at the Japan Skating Federation
Utana Yoshida / Masaya Morita at SkatingScores.com
Utana Yoshida / Shingo Nishiyama at the International Skating Union
Utana Yoshida / Shingo Nishiyama at SkatingScores.com
Utana Yoshida / Takumi Suigyama at the International Skating Union
Utana Yoshida on Instagram
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Utana Yoshida
- Masaya Morita
- 2024 NHK Trophy
- 2024–25 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating
- Shingo Nishiyama
- 2023–24 Japan Figure Skating Championships
- 2024 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships
- Scott Moir
- Adrián Díaz
- 2024 CS Nebelhorn Trophy
