Sawt Falasteen - Japan's Sakamoto survives wobble to retain world skating title

Sakamoto gave host country Japan its second success of the world championships in Saitama, north of Tokyo, after finishing ahead of South Korea's Lee Hae-in and Belgium's Loena Hendrickx.

Sakamoto went into the free skate with a big lead after earning a season's best score in Wednesday's short programme, but an error on a flip left her sweating on her final score.

She recovered to claim an overall mark of 224.61, which was enough to seal the deal ahead of Lee's 220.94 and Hendrickx's 210.42.

"I was glad that I had such a big lead after the short programme," said Sakamoto, the bronze medallist at last year's Beijing Olympics.

"But I didn't panic and I nailed the next three jumps after the flip, and that was really important."

Sakamoto became the first woman to retain her world title since Russia's Evgenia Medvedeva in 2017.

Russian skaters have again been banned from this year's competition because of the war in Ukraine.

Wearing a red dress and skating to "Elastic Heart" by Sia, Sakamoto had the Japanese fans eating out of her hand from the moment she stepped onto the ice.

But she did not appear to be convinced when she finished her routine, putting her hand to her head and grimacing before breaking into sobs.

"I was really panicking about what would be left of my lead from the short programme," said the 22-year-old.

"When I look at my medal, I feel happy, but when I look away again the frustration comes back."

- Chock, Evans take lead -

Sakamoto's win gave Japan its second gold of the competition after Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara claimed their country's first ever pairs world title the previous day.

Defending men's champion Shoma Uno will attempt to add a third on Saturday, and leads heading into the free skate.

Sakamoto said she would take time to decide whether to try to win a third world title next year, and vowed to become "a strong skater".

"A strong skater is someone who can give their best no matter the situation," she said.

"Whether I'm nervous or I'm panicking, I want to be able to hold it together to the end without losing my way."

US national champion Isabeau Levito, who turned 16 this month, finished fourth on 207.65.

Sakamoto's Japanese team-mate Mai Mihara, who won the Grand Prix final in December, went into the free skate in third place but dropped to fifth on 205.70.

Earlier in the day, Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates took a big step towards their first ice dance world title after winning the rhythm dance.

Chock and Bates scored 91.94 -- less than a point behind the world record of 92.73 -- to lead Italy's Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri on 88.21 and Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier on 87.34.

France's reigning Olympic and world ice dance champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are sitting out the competition.

Chock and Bates went into the event as favourites and Bates said they were happy with how they "handled the moment".

"I felt like we were relaxed, we were engaged with the audience," he said.

"I took a moment before we skated to look around and just appreciate the love for figure skating that's in the building."

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST