Figure skating-Miura and Kihara skate to Japan's first ever Olympic pairs title

MILAN, Feb 16 : Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara delivered a thrilling comeback at the Milano Cortina Games, storming from fifth place after a shaky short programme to capture Japan's first Olympic figure skating pairs title on Monday.

Miura and Kihara scored a whopping 158.13 points - a world record under the scoring system that was revamped following the 2018 Olympics - for their spellbinding free programme to music from "Gladiator," performed by Andrea Bocelli, to earn a combined total of 231.24.

That set the bar sky-high for the four teams that skated after them.

Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava captured Georgia's first ever Winter Olympics medal when they secured silver with 221.75.

The European champions paid the price for Metelkina stumbling out of her landing on the throw triple loop.  

Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, the leaders following the short programme, had to settle for bronze with 219.09 after Fabienne Hase bobbled the landing of a double Axel and singled a planned triple Salchow.

Miura and Kihara, who teamed up in 2019, had suffered an uncharacteristic error a night earlier when she slipped out of their lasso lift.

When they stepped off the ice on Sunday, coach Bruno Marcotte reminded a devastated Kihara: "It's not over."

Turns out, he was right.

"Considering the big mistake that we made yesterday, we feel very proud that we've been able to come ... back up to this high level today," Miura said.

Kihara added: "At this point, we still can't believe that this has happened since yesterday's performance.

"It's a little bit of a disbelief, almost, that we're able to get a medal for Japan pair skating for the first time ever, and we hope that our performance tonight is going to lead Japan