UPDATE 1-Figure skating-Japan duo Miura and Kihara take gold, Malinin leads after men's short program

The duo opened their routine to Benjamin Clementine's "Adiós" but struggled to complete their triple twist and triple toe loop jumps. Despite the early problems, they recovered to post a score of 143.22 for an overall 219.79 after leading the short program .

(Adds pairs free skate program results, quotes) BOSTON, March 27 (Reuters) -

Japanese duo Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara recovered from early setbacks to take pairs gold at the World Figure Skating Championships after Thursday's free skate program in Boston. The duo opened their routine to Benjamin Clementine's "Adiós" but struggled to complete their triple twist and triple toe loop jumps.

Despite the early problems, they recovered to post a score of 143.22 for an overall 219.79 after leading the short program

. "I'm very excited right now, so I forgot the English, but I'm very happy and I thanked everybody," said Kihara.

The Japanese pair, world champions in 2023 and silver medallists last year, edged out Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, who finished on 219.08 points. The European champions performed a perfectly synchronised routine that included a triple Salchow throw that delighted the crowd.

Italy's Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii also struggled to execute but still managed to take bronze with a total score of 210.47. Defending champions Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada finished fifth.

Earlier in the day, defending champion Ilia Malinin pulled off the best performance of his career to take the lead after a stunning men's short program. Malinin began with a quad flip and made a combination of quad Lutz triple toe loops look easy to achieve a personal best and fourth highest ever short program score of 110.41 score.

Japan's Yuma Kagiyama was second on 107.09 with Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov, this year's Four Continents winner, third on 94.77 ahead of Saturday's free skate. "I don't even know how to feel right now. I felt really nervous - more than usual before but when the music came on I just went into a flow state and it just went from there," Malinin said.

Malinin clearly loved every moment on the ice, at one stage singing along with Running by NF, as the volume at TD Garden only grew louder, with the 20-year-old delighting the crowd with his signature "raspberry twist". Kagiyama had the unenviable task of following Malinin, but skating to "The Sound of Silence" he put in a performance which also brought the crowd to their feet.

Kevin Aymoz of France moved safely though in fourth place, and was in tears after a performance which brought a standing ovation from the Boston crowd and ended with a season's best score of 93.63. His compatriot Adam Siao Him Fa shook off a fall at the start of his routine to recover with an excellent triple Axel, and is down in ninth place with 87.22.

The Frenchman was 19th after last year's short program before coming back to take the bronze medal.

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