SAITAMA, Japan, March 23 (Xinhua) — Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara received Japan’s first pairs title on the World Figure Skating Championships right here on Thursday.
Miura and Kihara, who took the lead after the quick program with a private better of 80.72 factors on Wednesday, beat defending champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier within the free skate, scoring 141.44 for a complete of 222.16.
Knierim and Frazier completed second on 217.48 and Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii collected 208.08 to win the bronze, the primary ever pairs medal for his or her nation on the World Championships.
31-year-old Kihara was emotional after serving to the hosts make one other historic achievement, including that he hopes to encourage extra Japanese kids to take up the game.
“We are proud of ourselves,” he mentioned. “Hopefully today will be a turning point for Japanese pairs.”
After coming second in final 12 months’s World Championships, they defeated Knierim and Frazier within the Grand Prix Final to win Japan’s first-ever pairs gold on the occasion, and went on to take gold at this 12 months’s Four Continents Championships.