Arizona Tribune - No Russia, no problem as Sakamoto leads world figure skating championships

At the Beijing Games in February, bronze-medallist Sakamoto was the only non-Russian in the top four in the women's skating.

The first two at the Olympics were Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova while European champion Kamila Valieva was fourth after spending the Games embroiled in a drugs controversy.

All are Russian skaters but are banned following their country's invasion of Ukraine.

In their absence, Sakamoto took the lead with 80.32 points, a new personal best.

She is followed by Belgium's Loena Hendrickx (75.00) and American Mariah Bell (72.55).

"It's sad for the athletes, but I think it's the right decision: we have to say that what is happening in the world, it's not okay," said Hendrickx as she commented on the Russian ban.

"I am sad for the athletes, because they cannot do anything, but it is a good thing to affirm that we will not permit that."

The women's free programme is scheduled for Friday evening.

Since 2015, and with the exception of 2018 (and 2020 when the competition was cancelled because of Covid-19), Russian women have won every world gold and swept the podiums at last year's World Championships and the European Championships in January.

The leading Russians will not be idle. Russian skating has rescheduled a competition to clash with the World Championships.

On Wednesday, Russian sports media reported that Shcherbakova and Valieva, and Olympic medallists in pairs and ice dance, would compete in the Channel One Cup in Saransk starting on Thursday.

pb/dj

D.Johnson--AT