Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara make strong start World Figure Skating Championships

Japanese duo Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara stormed into a convincing lead on home ice as they got their bid to win a first World Figure Skating Championship gold medal off to the best possible start. The duo won silver in Montpellier in 2022 after finishing behind USA's Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier. Ad But they have ended the day well ahead of their American rivals on the scorecards in Saitama, finishing with a total of 80.72 points in the short program.

World ChampionshipsWatch Sakamoto take short program win with stunning routine at World Champs in Saitama4 HOURS AGO The defending world champions will have a lot to do in the pairs free skating after they ended the opening day of the Championship in second with a score of 74.64. European champions Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii of Italy took the short program bronze medal with a score of 73.24. And there were two more encouraging performance from Japanese skaters in the women's short program.

Kaori Sakamoto boosted her hopes of defending her world title, inspiring Japan to a short program podium one-two. Sakamoto, who took gold in 2022, finished with a score of 79.24 to end the day with a gold medal and the lead in the overall standings. Lee Hae-in finished second ahead of the free skating in two days time, recording a score of 73.62.