Sumitada Moriguchi

Sumitada Moriguchi (森口 澄士) is a Japanese pair skater. With his partner Haruna Murakami, he is the 2022 JGP Poland I bronze medalist and the 2022–23 Japan champion at both the senior and junior levels.

Personal life
Moriguchi was born on 29 December 2001 in Uji, Kyoto, Japan.

He is a student at Doshisha University, where he studies in the Faculty of Commerce.

Early career
Moriguchi began figure skating in 2010 after being inspired by watching Daisuke Takahashi win the bronze medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

He competed at the 2016–17, 2018–19, and the 2019–20 Japan Junior Championships, respectively finishing twenty-ninth, twentieth, and nineteenth at those events.

He also competed at the 2020–21 and 2021–22 Japan Championships, placing twelfth and thirteenth, respectively.

In 2021, Moriguchi briefly tried pair skating with Ikura Kushida, although they never competed in competition together.

2022–23 season
At the suggestion of his coach, Mie Hamada, Moriguchi decided to team up with fellow Hamada student, Haruna Murakami. While Hamada remained their singles coach, they were simultaneously coached by former Japanese pairs skater, Narumi Takahashi, while also working with Bruno Marcotte and Brian Shales.

They made their debut as a pair team on the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix, Murakami/Moriguchi placed fourth at the 2022 JGP Czech Republic and third at the 2022 JGP Poland I.

Competing at the 2022–23 Japan Junior Championships, Murakami/Moriguchi won the gold medal.

Although initially listed as alternates to compete at the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final in Turin, Italy, they were ultimately called up to compete due to the withdrawal of Canadian pair team, Ava Kemp / Yonathan Elizarov.

At the Final, Murakami/Moriguchi placed fifth in the short program and third in the free skate, finishing in fourth place overall.

They went on to compete at the 2022–23 Japan Championships, which they won, after Riku Miura / Ryuichi Kihara were forced to withdraw due to flight delays. Moriguchi also competed in the men's singles event at Nationals and finished seventh, his highest result to date.

Selected to compete at the 2023 World Junior Championships in Calgary, Alberta, Murakami/Moriguchi finished fourth after placing sixth in the short program and fourth in the free skate.

Moriguchi went on to compete at the 2023 Triglav Trophy, where he won the silver medal behind Nozomu Yoshioka.

Following the season, it was announced that Murakami/Moriguchi had parted ways due to Moriguchi no longer being age eligible to compete on the junior level and Murakami being age ineligible to compete on the senior level for another three years.

Partnership with Nagaoka
In May 2023, it was announced that Moriguchi had teamed up with former singles skater, Yuna Nagaoka. They started off their season winning the Japan Eastern Sectionals. They went to their solo GP event, the NHK Trophy. They scored 45.36 for their short program, 90.03 for their free, and 135.39 overall, placing eighth. They went on to win their first Japanese National title.

They were named to the World Figure Skating Championships. It was announced later that they would be attending the Bavarian Open to get their minimums, which would be their international debut.

Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix

Detailed results
Current personal best scores are highlighted in bold.