Kadoma, Osaka Pref. –

Reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto won the women's title at the Japanese national figure skating championships for the second consecutive year and third time overall on Saturday.

Sakamoto performed a near-flawless free skate to score 155.26 points for a total of 233.05 at Towa Pharmaceutical Ractab Dome in Osaka Prefecture. The Beijing Olympic bronze medalist topped both the short and free programs.

With the national title, Sakamoto earned automatic qualification for next March's world championships in Saitama.

"I'm so happy," Sakamoto said. "It was good to train hard this past week. I wanted to win this national title no matter what. I'll be able to continue my training positively."

Earlier this month at the Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy, Sakamoto topped the short program but finished fifth after a sluggish free skate.

Her free skate on Christmas Eve was completely different as she kept her composure and went on to nail a triple-triple jump combination and a three-jump combination that began with a double axel.

Grand Prix Final winner Mai Mihara settled for second place with 219.93, with Mao Shimada, the 14-year-old Junior Grand Prix Final winner, moving up a spot to third place and fellow 14-year-old Ami Nakai in fourth.

Shimada fell on both her triple axel and quad toe loop attempts in an otherwise solid performance.

"I couldn't take off with the right timing as I got nervous and tense," Shimada said. "I want to use this (bitter) experience in upcoming events."

Daisuke Takahashi, the 2010 Vancouver Olympic men's bronze medalist, won the ice dance competition with Kana Muramoto, making him the first Japanese skater ever to have won both the men's and ice dance national titles. He has won the men's event five times.

Takahashi and Muramoto had a total of 186.61 points for their first national crown, 11.51 clear of second-place Takeru and Misato Komatsubara, who were bidding to win for the fifth straight time.