Turin (Italy) (AFP) - Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won Japan's first Grand Prix Final pairs gold in Turin on Friday ahead of world champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the United States.
The world silver medallists led all the way to push Knierim and Frazier into second spot after the free skating final in the Palavela with Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii taking bronze for hosts Italy in the six-team final.
Skating to "Atlas: Two", Miura and Kihara scored 136.50 points for the free skate and a total of 214.58 points overall to beat their American rivals by a slim margin of 1.3 points and set themselves up as the favourites for the world championships at home in Japan next year.
In the absence of the banned Russians and also the Chinese, who did not compete in the Grand Prix Series this year, all the pairs teams are first timers in the tournament.
