Monday, 27th February 2006 (4239 views)

Japan's figure skating gold medallist has been presented with a gold tiara, Mainichi Interactive reports.

Shizuka Arakawa won Japan's only gold medal at this year's winter Olympics in Turin for the women's figure skating.

And she struck gold again when she received the diamond-studded tiara as a gift from the local Piedmontese government in Turin. It features 2.5-carat of diamonds and is worth around £35,000.

Ms Arakawa said she was "really happy to have received something so fantastic".

"I want to look at it in a mirror," she explained.

Ms Arakawa, the figure skating world champion in 2004, landed five triple jumps before finishing with a total of 191.34 points to take the gold, eight points ahead of silver medallist Sasha Cohen of the US.

Her performance was described as "an epoch-making event that added a new page to Japan's winter sports" by the leader of the Japanese Olympic delegation, Kenichi Chizuka.

However, Ms Arakawa's gold was the sole medal won by Japan in Turin, meaning the Japanese athletes fell far short of bringing home the predicted five or more. Mr Chizuka subsequently apologised for the country's poor performance at the games.

"We must take these wretched results seriously. I apologise to the Japanese people," he said.

 

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