The Japanese athlete won her second straight world title in the women’s individual skating at the World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama on Friday.

20th place goes to Romanian Yulia Sauter

Sakamoto won the final ranking with a total of 224.61 points, followed by South Korean figure skater Hein Lee (220.94 points) and 2022 runner-up Loena Hendricks of Belgium with 210.42 points, Agerpres reported.

Nippon, who was in the lead after the short program, broke down in tears after her performance in Friday’s free program to Sia’s “Elastic Heart.”

In the hierarchy of the free program, Lee was the first, followed by Sakamoto and another representative of South Korea, Cheyon Kim.

In the end, Julia Sauter took 20th place, scoring 165.62 points, the same number she finished in the free program. After the evolution of the short program, the Romanian took 22nd place.

Sauter, who finished 10th at the European Championships this year, is making his second appearance at the Worlds after finishing 18th last year.

For the second year in a row, the World Championships were held without Russian skaters, who were suspended due to the war in Ukraine started by Russia.