Riku Miura burst into tears the moment the final scores went up in Boston. She and partner Ryuichi Kihara had just won the pairs title at the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships, and the margin was razor thin: 219.79 points to 219.08 for Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin. Italy’s Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii took bronze with 210.47.
The free skate was on Thursday, March 27, at TD Garden. The Japanese pair skated to “Adios” and made small errors, but they had banked a lead from the short program the day before, and it held. Japan Forward noted that their higher program component scores, 71.72 against the Germans’ 70.57, made the difference at the top of the podium.
“There were small mistakes, but I’m very happy to be here and of course to win the second world title,” Miura said. “The first title two years ago was just happiness, but in the last two years, we had very hard times, we had injury problems, we went through many emotions.”
A title regained
This was the second world crown for the pair. Their first came in Saitama in March 2023, when they became the first Japanese pair to win a world pairs title. Then Kihara hurt his lower back, which kept them out of competition that fall. They came back in February 2024 and took silver at the following World Championships, where they won the free skate but not the overall title. Xinhua described the Boston win as reclaiming the title.
Both of them looked ahead rather than back. Kihara said the pair had found real enjoyment in skating toward the end of the season and wanted to carry that into the next one. He also named a problem to fix. “Something we want to work on is our throw,” he said. It had not been as consistent as usual, and the pair were considering reordering the elements after talks with their coaching team.
Pointing to Milan
The result came a season before the Winter Olympics in Milan in February 2026. Japan Forward wrote that the victory would make Miura and Kihara favorites for gold at those Games.
In the same event, Ilia Malinin of the United States, the defending champion, led the men’s short program with 110.41 points. Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama was second on 107.09.
Sources
- Japan's Miura/Kihara win world pairs figure skating title-Xinhua
- Miura and Kihara Claim 2nd World Title in Boston | Japan Forward
