Former world champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan opened the figure skating grand prix season with a pairs victory at Skate America on Saturday.
The duo, who settled for silver at the last worlds after winning gold in 2023, delivered a polished albeit not perfect free skate to post a total of 214.23 points.
The Japanese pair had led by more than seven points after the short programme and had the best score in the free skate despite Miura falling on their triple throw loop.
Americans Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea, second after the short programme, skated smoothly to finish second on 201.73 points and compatriots Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov were third on 191.51.
Reigning world junior champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia were third after the short programme but a scattering of errors in their free skate — including on side-by-side jumps and their death spiral — saw them drop to fourth.
Men’s world champion Ilia Malinin of the United States was due to launch his bid for a third straight Skate America crown in the men’s short programme later Saturday.
The 19-year-old soared to his first world title with a gravity-defying quadruple-jumping free skate in Montreal last season that put him more than 20 points ahead of his rivals.
Malinin is expected to offer fireworks of a different nature in his quest to become the first man to win three straight Skate America titles since Nathan Chen won four in a row from 2017 through 2020.
Since the International Skating Union’s recent decision to lift its longstanding ban on backflips in competition, Malinin has mastered the move and included one at the lower-level Lombardia Trophy in September.
The element is not officially scored but it no longer garners a deduction.
American Isabeau Levito, the reigning world silver medallist, takes the lead into the women’s free skate later Saturday. Teammate Bradie Tennell was second after the short programme with Japan’s Rinka Watanabe third.
Saturday’s action opened with Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson grabbing a surprise lead after the rhythm dance over two-time reigning ice dance world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates.
Fear and Gibson, fourth at the last two world championships, scored 83.56 points for a 5.68-point lead over Chock and Bates — whose performance was marred by an uncharacteristic fall after Chock hit Bates’s foot upon landing a small jump.
Chock and Bates will try to erase the gap in Sunday’s final free dance and claim a record-equalling fifth Skate America crown.
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