The best figure skaters will compete for prizes at the world championship, fingers crossed in Latvia as well / Article

The biggest hopes of Latvian fans are connected with Denis Vasiļjevs, who will compete in the seventh world championship in his career. So far, the best success for Denis was in 2018, when he won 6th place and entered the TOP10 for the only time. Last year, Vasiliev finished the world championships in 13th place, which is his second best achievement. This time, too, a difficult task awaits Denis in the fight for a place in the top ten, because there will be no shortage of excellent masters on the ice of the “Saitama Super Arena”.

To the delight of the hosts, the world champion and Olympic medalist Soma Uno will start as the main favorite.

who won the “Grand Prix” final this season. Uno’s most serious competitors are considered to be his compatriot Sota Yamamoto, who earned silver in the “Grand Prix” final, and the American Ilya Malinin. European champion French figure skater Adam Him Fa and American Jason Brown, who did not compete in the first half of the season, will be among the other contenders for the podium.

Vasilijevs, who won 5th place both in Uno and in the European Championship in January, is training under the guidance of Stefan Lambjel.

Also in the women’s competition, the hosts claim the main roles.

Kaori Sakamoto will try to defend the title of the champion, who has to count on the ambitions of Mai Mihara, the Japanese figure skater who won the Grand Prix final. Among the Europeans, last year’s silver medalist Lena Hendricks from Belgium will fight for a place on the podium.

Latvian figure skater Sofja Stepchenko is waiting for her debut at the world championships, but the 16-year-old athlete has already proven that she can not get lost in the company of more titled masters, as evidenced by her 11th place in the European championships in January.

World and Olympic ice dance champions Gabriela Papadaki/Guillaume Sizeron are missing the season, but in their absence there is no shortage of contenders for the vacant champion title.

Experts see the best chances for the North American dance duets – Canadians Piper Giles/Paul Poirier and Americans Madison Choka/Evan Bates.

The Canadians were the decision-makers in the first half of the season until their partner underwent appendicitis surgery, but after that the couple is already training at full capacity, even though they did not compete in the Canadian Championship.

Latvia will be represented in the dance pair competition by Aurelija Ipolito/Lūks Russell, who finished third in the world championship a year ago, but in the new season finished in 20th position in the European Championship.

On the other hand, in pair skating, specialists expect the continuation of the fight between the American Alexa Knirim/Brandon Fraser and the Japanese duo Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara as the main favorites.

In the previous world championship, Knirima/Fraser won, leaving Miura/Kihara in the silver role. Europe’s highest hopes in the competition for awards could be linked to Sara Conti/Niccolo Massi – if they succeed, both will become the first Italians to climb onto the podium in the world championship in pairs.

In Japan, the interest in the world championship is huge, and the organizers sell tickets for the training sessions as well. 35 participants in men’s competitions and 34 women’s figure skaters, as well as 23 duets in pair skating and 33 dance pairs will compete in the championship. According to the previous decisions of the International Skating Union (ISU), athletes from Russia and Belarus, as well as officials, do not participate in the world championship in any capacity.

The first competition will take place on Wednesday, March 22, in the short program – the live broadcast on LSM.lv will start at 3.50. On the same day at The women will start the short program at 8.50. The championship will end on Sunday, March 26 with demonstrations.

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