Asada regains world ladies title on home ice
BySportsbeat
Updated 29/03/2014 at 14:30 GMT
Mao Asada ended a four-year wait for another World Figure Skating Championships ladies' title as she completed her dominance in front of a partisan home crowd in Saitama.
Gold medallist Mao Asada (centre), silver medallist Julia Lipnitskaia of Russia (left) and bronze medallist Carolina Kostner of Italy (right)
Image credit: AFP
Asada won the ladies' world title in 2008 and 2010 and, after bronze last year, returned to stake her claim as the globe's finest on home ice in Japan by leading throughout.
Placing first after the short program, Asada was unbeatable in the free skate as her score of 138.03 gave her an overall total of 216.69 that was by far the best.
That meant Julia Lipnitskaia had to make do with silver on her return to the world stage after a mistake at last month's Winter Olympics prevented her from winning a medal.
The Russian scored 207.50 overall for silver while Italian Carolina Kostner held onto bronze with 203.83 despite placing sixth with her free skate in Saitama.
Meanwhile Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte, sixth at Sochi 2014, claimed their maiden world title despite placing fourth with their free dance.
Leading after the short dance, they held onto first place after the free dance by the narrowest of margins ahead of Canadian duo Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje.
Weaver and Poje were second after the short dance but were only third best in the free dance and missed out on gold by 0.02 points while the margin to third was close as well.
Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat scored 175.37 overall, 0.04 behind Weaver and Poje, as they won their second World Championship bronze medal.
© Sportsbeat 2014
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