A 23-year-old Japanese woman won the women’s competition at the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal (Canada) Kaori Sakamoto.
After the short program, only the 4th former Japanese woman scored 149.67 points for the free program and surpassed all competitors. K. Sakamoto finished the championship with 222.96 points.
Before that, the Japanese woman became the world champion in 2022. and in 2023 K. Sakamoto became the first skater to win 3 consecutive world championships in the women’s category since 1968, when an American did the same Peggy Fleming.
“At the very beginning of the performance, I stumbled a bit, but I quickly regrouped, calmed down and performed the rest of the program perfectly. I struggled with the pressure before the short program, but today I handled the pressure well. After the short program, I was not sure if I would be able to defend the title, so I am very happy with this victory,” said the Japanese woman.
The American won the silver Isabeau Levito (212.16), bronze – Chaeyeon Kim (203.59) from South Korea.
After the short program, the leading European champion was Belgian Loena Hendrickx was wrong and took only 8th place in the free program. In the general standings, this pushed her behind the prize-winners – to 4th place (200.25).
On Saturday, the remaining two sets of medals in ice dance and men’s competitions will be distributed.
