Kaori Sakamoto takes the lead as she chases a fourth and last figure skating world title

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PRAGUE (AP) — It's time to say goodbye for Kaori Sakamoto, and she's aiming to go out on a high with the world figure skating title.

Sakamoto's short-program music, “Time to Say Goodbye,” was charged with emotion as she targets a fourth world title before retirement.

Sakamoto shouted with joy and clapped as she learned her score of 79.31, a season-best which put her into first place by less than a point from her fellow Japanese skater Mone Chiba on a personal-best 78.45 in her disco-themed program.

There was extra nostalgia for Sakomoto because her last world championships are in the Czech Republic, where she started her Junior Grand Prix career 13 years ago.

“It was a good feeling to have,” she said of the full-circle moment.

There's a strong U.S. challenge for the medals ahead of Friday's free skate with Amber Glenn third and Isabeau Levito fourth.

Without Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu, who withdrew from the world championships amid a hectic media schedule, the focus was on whether Sakamoto could regain the title she won three times in a row from 2022 through 2024, and whether three-time U.S. champion Glenn could claim a first world medal.

Glenn came to the world championships with an Olympic team gold but missed the individual medals after a short-program error. She was back on form Wednesday, starting with a big triple axel on her way to scoring 72.65. Levito was just behind her with 72.16 for fourth in her return to form after 12th at the Olympics.

Ami Nakai's triple axel propelled her into the Olympic short-program lead — she ended up with bronze — but went missing Wednesday. The 17-year-old Japanese skater could only manage an awkward double as her opening jump and has a tough task to recover from eighth.

Olympic pairs bronze medalists Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany are narrowly ahead in in the latest installment of a long-running rivalry.

Skating last, the Germans took the lead by 79.78 to 79.45 against Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia, who beat them to the European title and Olympic silver this season. Canadians Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud are in third on 75.52 ahead of Thursday's free skate.

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara are skipping the world championships after winning Japan's first Olympic pairs title last month.

U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov couldn't compete at the Olympics because Efimova wasn't yet a U.S. citizen. A slip by Efimova on a triple toeloop and a heavy landing on a throw left them seventh.

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