Turin (Italy) (AFP) - Japanese pair Miura Riku and Kihara Ryuichi made the early running in the pairs competition, winning the short programme on the opening day of the ISU Grand Prix final in Turin on Thursday.
The top qualifiers were last on the ice and turned in a superb routine to the sound of an Elvis Presley and Marcus Mumford medley of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.
Miura had to work to hold her landing on the throw triple Lutz but the pair, trained by Bruno Marcotte and Meagan Duhamel, held it together to rack up an impressive 78.08 points ahead of Friday's free skating.
World champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the USA also produced an absorbing routine, inspired by the TV show 'Stranger Things', the only negative being when Frazier appeared to put his hand down on the triple toe loop side-by-side jumps.
They registered a personal best 77.65 which leaves them in a dogfight with Riku and Ryuichi, well ahead of third-placed Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada, who are almost eight points back.
In the absence of the banned Russians and also the Chinese, who did not compete in the Grand Prix Series this year, all the teams are first timers.
