Montpellier (France) (AFP) - In the absence of the banned Russians, Japanese skater Kaori Sakamoto took the lead after the women's short programme at the World Championships in Montpellier on Wednesday.
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.
"Regarding today's performance, it's actually the first time for me to score above 80, so I am actually very happy about that," said Sakamoto who skated to the theme from "Gladiator".
"With the Russian skaters no longer taking part in this competition, all of the sudden I was considered to be the gold medalist candidate.
"In the beginning, because I wasn't really in top form, it was hard for me to try to push myself and I also felt a gap between where I was and where I wanted to be.
"But over the days my performance started to really pick up and gradually I was able to tell myself it wasn't really the result that counted."
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.
With Russia banned from the pairs event and with China's Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong not taking part, the short programme also had a new look.
Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the United States are in the lead with 76.88 points, ahead of compatriots, Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy Leduc (75.85 ).
Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (71.58) are in third with the decisive free skating programme set for Thursday.
