Kaori Sakamoto held off a challenge from South Korea’s Lee Hae-in on Friday to become the first Japanese woman to defend her title at the figure skating world championships.
Sakamoto, who led after the short program, made only one mistake in Friday’s free skate at the Saitama Super Arena when she sang a triple flip. He landed the rest of his jumps cleanly and scored a total of 224.61.
Skating to the music from “Phantom of the Opera”, Lee took first place with a stellar performance in the free skate, which included six triple jumps, but came up slightly in the overall standings with a total of 220.94 points.
2022 world silver medalist Loena Hendricks of Belgium finished third with a score of 210.42.
Sakamoto, who won her maiden world title in Montpellier, France last year, recalled her performance at the 2019 World Championships when she finished fifth at the same venue in Japan.
Sakamoto said, “I wanted revenge from four years ago.” “Then I made the same mistake and I thought to myself, ‘Why did I do all this practice?’
American teenager Isabeau Levito finished fourth. The 16-year-old US national champion fell on her opening triple lutz and failed to make a third combination but finished with 207.65 points despite making costly mistakes.
After finishing fourth, 12th, and 15th, the Americans will have only two women’s spots at next year’s world championships.
Russia’s premier figure skating team has been left out of the world championships for the second year in a row because of the invasion of Ukraine. Russian women storm the podium at the 2021 World Championships.
In ice dance, Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States took the lead in the rhythm dance.
The three-time Four Continents champion scored a new personal best of 91.94 points.
“We skated as best we could today. It was a lot of fun,” Bates said. “We’re thrilled with the score. It’s always nice when you come off the ice feeling like you skated well and then you see a score that reflects that feeling you had inside.
Reigning European champions Charlene Guignard and Italy’s Marco Fabbri was second with 88.21 points, while Grand Prix Final champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada were third with 87.34 points.
Ice dance and the men’s final are on Saturday.