Tetsuya Otaki and Reina Umehara earned their first major domestic titles Monday when they prevailed in the giant slaloms at the alpine skiing national championships for technical events.
Otaki, a former Japanese representative for the world junior championships, marked the day's fastest times in both runs in the men's field for a winning total of 2 minutes, 12.06 seconds while Umehara won the women's crown in 2:24.90 in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture.
Joji Kawaguchi finished runnerup in the men's event 0.68 behind Otaki. Yasuhiro Ikuta took third in 0.06 further behind.
Defending men's champion Kenta Uraki settled for 11th place. In the women's field, Chinatsu Takeda finished second in 2:26.23 and Emiko Kiyosawa third in 2:27.52 as high school students swept the medals podium.