The figure skating Grand Prix Final was held on the 9th, and after finishing the short program, the pair of Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, who finished the short program, held the top in total and won the tournament for the first time.
It is the first time for a Japanese team to win a Grand Prix Final pairing.
What is the Miura-Kihara pair?
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara are a pair in their fourth year together.
Miura is 20 years old from Hyogo prefecture.
She converted from single to pair in 2015.
A 30-year-old native of Aichi Prefecture, Kihara switched from singles to pairs in 2013, and the following year she made her debut as a team member at the Sochi Olympics with Narumi Takahashi.
She competed in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics in a pair with Miu Suzaki.
Miura and Kihara formed a pair in August 2019 and placed 5th in the Grand Prix series NHK Trophy, which they entered shortly after.
After that, he practiced based in Canada and finished 10th at last year's World Championships.
At the Beijing Olympics in February this year, he contributed to Japan's bronze medal in the team, and in the individual competition, he achieved a record 7th place finish for a Japanese team in this event, and finished 2nd at the World Championships in March.
And this season, she has been honing her techniques one by one, such as lifts, spins, and jumps, and has also worked to improve her moves and the transitions between them.
Despite the absence of the Russian players who have shown their strength in this event this season, they showed a sense of stability and won their first Grand Prix Series victory as a pair of Japanese players at the Grand Prix Series Canada Tournament in October. Last month's NHK Trophy also updated his personal best and won the championship.