Japan's Sakamoto seals golden farewell with 4th figure skating worlds title

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Kaori Sakamoto put an end to her illustrious career in storybook fashion, capturing her fourth world title with a near-flawless free skate at the 2026 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Prague on Friday.

The Olympic silver medalist's swan song headlined a night of high drama at the O2 Arena, where China's Zhang Ruiyang finished 16th in her senior worlds debut, marking the country's best result in the event in nearly a decade.

Skating to the music of Edith Piaf, Sakamoto, who turns 26 in early April, delivered a commanding performance that featured seven clean triple jumps and exquisite spins, earning a personal-best free skate score of 158.97 points for a total of 238.28 - both season-best marks. The victory, which follows her Olympic silver in Milan just weeks ago, allowed the four-time world champion to exit without regret.

"Today I actually didn't care about the results. Of course I wanted to skate with no regrets and to do my best, but there are so many people supporting me and watching, and I wanted to do my best for them," Sakamoto said. "There are no regrets at all. I can say goodbye with this performance."

The Japanese contingent secured the top two spots on the podium, with Mone Chiba claiming silver with a personal-best total of 228.47 points. Belgium's Nina Pinzarrone surged to third place with 215.20 points to capture her first worlds medal, finishing ahead of 2024 silver medalist Isabeau Levito of the United States.

Zhang, 18, finished 16th overall with a total of 178.13 points. She opened her free skate with a well-executed triple Lutz but fell on a triple loop. She ranked 14th in the free skate with a score of 119.17 points, capping a solid debut that comes as China's best women's singles finish at the worlds since Li Xiangning placed 14th in 2017.

"I'm generally satisfied, but I'm still not fully used to such an exciting atmosphere," Zhang said.

In the rhythm dance competition, Olympic champions Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France continued their dominant run, setting a personal-best score of 92.74 points to take the lead heading into Saturday's free dance. Canadians Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier sit second, with Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson in third.

Chinese ice dancers Ren Junfei and Xing Jianing finished 24th with 63.75 points and failed to advance to the final segment.

The championships wraps up its competition schedule on Saturday with the men's free skate and the free dance, and Sunday will see the Exhibition Gala and ISU Figure Skating Awards ceremony.