Mao Asada
© AFP Toru Yamanaka

TOKYO (AFP) - Asada upset two-times world champion Irina Slutskaya of Russia to win the women's title at the Grand Prix Final here a week ago, prompting calls among Japanese fans and politicians to let her skate in Turin.

Asada, the world junior champion, ended second on the final day of the national championships Sunday behind two-times world bronze medallist Fumie Suguri.

The Japanese federation named 2004 world champion Shizuka Arakawa, 25, Suguri, 24, and 2004 world junior champion Miki Ando, 18, who became the only female skater to have landed a a quadruple in competition.

The 2002 world junior silver medallist Yukari Nakano, 20, who captured her first Grand Prix event in Osaka earlier this month, failed to secure an Olympic berth even though she finished higher than Ando at the nationals.

For the men's competition the federation chose Daisuke Takahashi, the winner of Skate America in October, who defeated his arch-rival Nobunari Oda to win the national title Saturday.

The International Olympic Committee, intent on bringing the world's best athletes to the Games, allows international sports federations to enforce their own eligibility rules.

The International Skating Union decided in 1996 to bar figure skaters from competing at the Olympics or world championships if they have not turned 15 by July 1 in the year before the competition.

It is aimed at saving them excessive strain in the highly demanding events while they are still growing.

Asada, who dazzles with effortless jumps including 3-1/2 revolution triple Axels, turned 15 on September 25.

Asada has made her mark on the senior scene. She finished second to Slutskaya in China in her Grand Prix debut and triumphed at the next round in France over American Sasha Cohen, the senior world championship runner-up.

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