Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara became the first Japanese figure skating world champions in pairs on Thursday, reports Le Figaro.
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, Japan’s first world doubles champions
Leading after a fantastic short program, the Japanese pair retained their place in Thursday’s free program in Saitama.
With the sum of 222.16 points, the Japanese surpassed the American world champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Fraser (217.48).
Full European champions Italians Sara Conti and Niccolo Machi took the podium, having scored 208.08 points.
Miura, 21, and Kihara, 30, have been performing together since 2019.
The pair won the Grand Prix of Turin final last December and then the Four Continents Tour in February, according to News.ro.
RIKURI THE FIRST JAPANESE COUPLES TO WIN GOLD AT THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS uD83DuDE2DuD83DuDE2DuD83DuDE2D#RikuMiura #RyuichiKihara #三浦璃来 #木原龍一 #RikuRyu #りくりゅう pic.twitter.com/T7dg4lm4FW
— chloé uD83CuDF19 (@midorimoonlight) March 23, 2023
uD83DuDCFA This is another historic moment for Japan! uD83CuDDEFuD83CuDDF5 Miura / Kihara made their dreams come true by earning the world title in front of their home crowd! uD83DuDD25⛸ #World figure #Figure skating pic.twitter.com/AzT6TjCLwt
— ISU Figure Skating (@ISU_Figure) March 23, 2023
Source: Hot News
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