(Reuters) – Japanese skaters dominated the ice at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Colorado on Saturday as teenager Kao Miura won gold in the men’s event while Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara triumphed in the pairs event.
The 17-year-old Kao Miura, who led the men’s short programme on Thursday, held off a challenge from Canada’s 31-year-old Keegan Messing in the free skate for the biggest victory of his career.
Performing to “Beauty and the Beast” in the free skate, Kao Miura collected 189.63 points, taking his total to 281.53, which were his best-ever marks.
“Keegan put out such a strong skate. I feel like I rode that momentum,” Kao Miura, who won bronze last year, said.
“I told myself, ‘I can do that too.’ I’m very proud of myself for putting out the performance that I did today.”
Messing, who has said this is his final competitive season, took silver while Japanese 19-year-old Shun Sato bronze bagged bronze.
Earlier, reigning world silver medallists Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara made history by claiming the first championship title in pair skating for Japan at the competition.
The overnight leaders, who performed to “Atlas: Two” and “Sweet Tenderness”, displayed a strong showing that was highlighted by a triple twist, two level-four lifts and throw triple loop.
The side-by-side jumps were shaky and both the triple Salchow and the triple toe were slightly under-rotated, but they still went on to win by seven points on 208.24.
“Three years ago when we were at Four Continents for the first time we were saying one day we would like to sit here in the centre and three years later we are here,” Riku Miura said.
The American pairing of Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe, who were last year’s runners-up, took silver again while Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps earned bronze.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
