COLORADO (Kyodo) -- Daisuke Takahashi has played down his rivalry with Canadian world champion Patrick Chan as the two prepare to do battle at this week's Four Continents Figure Skating Championships, the last international event before next month's world championships in Nice, France.
Takahashi finished a distant second to Chan at the Grand Prix Final in Quebec City in December but enters the Four Continents buoyed by victory at the national championships, where he scored 96.05 points during a sublime short program in Osaka.
Although points at the national championships are not officially recognized by the International Skating Union, Takahashi's score was 3.03 points better than the world's highest short program score held by Chan.
But Takahashi says he is only focusing on his own performance and is looking to improve on his triumphant skate at the nationals.
"It doesn't really matter who is competing here and I just want to be able to perform my programs well," Takahashi told reporters after arriving at Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
"This is simply an opportunity to compete ahead of the world championships. I want to skate better than I did at the nationals and give myself a platform to build on for the worlds."
The 2010 world champion said he was unsure what effect the high altitude would have on his performance.
"This is my first time to compete in an event at high altitude. I am not sure how things will work out but I want to get lots of practice," said Takahashi, who will likely need to nail quads in both his short and free skate to stand a realistic chance of beating Chan.
"I have been told that (the altitude) makes it easy to put in quads as you can get height on your jumps but this is my first time so I don't know what will happen until I try."
Nan Song of China, Americans Adam Rippon and Ross Miner and Kazakhstan's Denis Ten are also hoping for a podium finish. Takahito Mura and Tatsuki Machida are the other Japanese skaters in the men's competition.
Former two-time world champion Mao Asada, who claimed an emotional victory at the national championships just weeks after the death of her mother, headlines the women's program, with the challenge likely to come from newly crowned U.S. champion Ashley Wagner and compatriots Kanako Murakami and Haruka Imai.
Asada won the national crown without including her trademark triple axel jump but hinted that she will include it in her skate here.
"I have been practicing with the triple axel in mind. I wouldn't say it is really, really good but things but are moving in the right direction. I'll see how things are in practice here and hopefully put the triple axel in my program."
The competition gets under way with the men's short program on Thursday.
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