Favourites Kagiyama, Sakamoto look at ease in practice ahead of World Championships

There were no surprises as Kagiyama Yuma and Sakamoto Kaori garnered most of the attention on the first day of practice on Monday (21 March) for the 2022 ISU World Figure Skating Championships.

As the athletes took to the ice at the Sud de France Arena in Montpellier, it was the Beijing 2022 Olympic figure skating medallists – the two Japanese winning individual silver and bronze, respectively, in the Chinese capital last month – who looked to have maintained their form from the Olympic Games the best.

In the men's field, Kagiyama, one of the favourites for gold in the absence of double Olympic champion Hanyu Yuzuru and three-time defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Nathan Chen, will be closely watched this week to see if he can convert his two Grand Prix gold medals into a first major championship title.

Sakamoto likewise holds the favourite tag in a women's event without Olympic and reigning world champion Anna Shcherbakova.

While neither Kagiyama nor Sakamoto were perfect in practice, both falling, they unsurprisingly looked among the most at ease on the ice.

Sakamoto comfortable, Liu and You intrigue with triple Axel attempts

Sakamoto looked comfortable during her practice session, despite a fall on a triple flip and turning out of the same jump during her music run-through.

The Japanese skater repeatedly practised that jump on the ice after her run-through, both alone and in a triple flip, triple toe loop combination.

Sakamoto's route to the world title will be complicated by three women with triple Axels in their repertoire: her teammate Higuchi Wakaba, South Korea's You Young, and the American Alysa Liu – who is also the only skater in the field to have landed a quad jump in international competition.

On Monday, Higuchi – who in Beijing became the fifth woman to land an Olympic triple Axel – did not produce a triple Axel during her practice, instead performing a single and a double during her Lion King free program run-through.

Liu chose to work on her short program, forgoing the quad jumps, while her multiple triple Axel attempts appeared under-rotated. Although she did not attempt the triple in Beijing, it appears she will try the jump in Montpellier.

You, whose Olympic triple Axel attempt was downgraded, did appear to land the jump cleanly during her time on the ice, and perhaps looks best-placed to push Sakamoto should Liu opt against doing any quads as she did in Beijing. For her part, the Korean has spoken of practising quads for next season.

Kagiyama's quad show in Worlds practice despite fall

Earlier in the morning, most of the attention during men's practice was focussed on Kagiyama, the only Japanese man on the ice today.

The teenager fell on a triple Axel during his short program run-through set to Michael Bublé's When You're Smiling, which bizarrely cut out during his final spin, and was replayed three times during his group's practice session.

However, he looked confident on his quad attempts during the 35-minute session, landing multiple quadruple toe loops and quadruple Salchows.

American Vincent Zhou, who this week is set to skate competitively for the first time since a positive Covid diagnosis ruled him out of the Olympic singles competition, looked understandably rusty, stepping out on a quad attempt during his run through as well as turning out of other quad attempts.

In the build-up to Worlds, Zhou spoke about struggling to find motivation to train after his Olympic heartbreak, but vowed to keep fighting.

His U.S. teammate Ilia Malinin, still only 17, marked all his jumps during his music run-through. Malinin is a talented quad jumper – his Instagram handle is "quadg0d" – and will be closely watched as a potential podium finisher with his ability.