Sixteen-year-old Rika Kihira claimed gold in the women's event at the figure skating Grand Prix Final on Saturday, becoming the first Japanese skater since Mao Asada in 2005 to win the competition in her debut season.

Kihira, who took the lead after Thursday's short program, topped the six-woman field at the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver with a total score of 233.12 points. Pyeongchang Olympics champion Alina Zagitova of Russia finished with silver on 226.53, while Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, also from Russia, took bronze with 215.32.

Figure skating: Rika Kihira opens Grand Prix Final with stellar SP

Figure skating: Kihira looks to end sparkling GP season with flourish at Final

"I think the reason I have had good results this season is that in the past season and the one before that I had many failures and I promised myself I would remember them and never repeat them," said Kihira.

"For this season the Grand Prix Final was not in my mind. I was just aiming to get good results in all my Grand Prix assignments and replicate what I was doing in practice."

[ISU/Getty/Kyodo]

On Thursday, the Japanese teenager posted the highest women's short program score in the world since the judging system was revised ahead of the season. She had a 4.58-point lead over Zagitova going into the free program.

Japan's Satoko Miyahara, who won the Grand Prix series-opening Skate America in October, finished sixth, while Kaori Sakamoto was fourth.

One of only a handful of women to perform a triple axel in competition, Kihira won the NHK Trophy on her Grand Prix debut last month. She followed up that triumph with another win at the Internationaux de France, the sixth and final leg of the series.

Asada won the women's final in 2005 when she was 15 years old. The 2010 Vancouver Olympics silver medalist went on to win the tournament three more times before announcing her retirement in 2017.

The tournament features the skaters who collected the most points in their Grand Prix events. In the men's competition, American reigning world champion Nathan Chen defended his title, while Japan's Shoma Uno claimed silver for the second year running.