Figure skating: Sakamoto misses 4th straight worlds title as Liu wins

Japan's Kaori Sakamoto fell short of her fourth straight women's figure skating world championship title on Friday when she finished second behind first-time winner Alysa Liu of the United States.Fifth after a tightly-contested short program on Wednesday, the title defense was well within reach for Sakamoto at TD Garden in Boston but her 146.95-point performance in the free skate and 217.98 points in total was not enough to beat Liu, who won both segments to prevail with 222.97 points.Japanese skater Mone Chiba finished third with 215.24 points.Facing a 3.55-point deficit to Liu, Sakamoto p…READ FULL ARTICLE