Montpellier (France) (AFP) - US skaters Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier won pairs gold in the world figure skating championships on Thursday as their nearest rivals were forced to retire after a fall in the free skating final.
Fellow Americans Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy Leduc, second after the short programme, were forced to withdraw after Cain-Gribble fell three times during their performance.
Looking concussed 26-year-old Cain-Gribble lay on the ice after her third fall and was stretchered off on front of the stunned crowd in southern France.
Knierim, 30, and Frazier, 29 took to the ice just after the drama, leading the way for the second day to win with 221.09 points.
They won their first major title ahead of Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (199.55) with Vanessa James and Eric Radford, moving up from fifth to take bronze for Canada with 197.32.
Olympic champions Sui Wenjing and Han Cong were not competing while Russia, who took silver and gold at the Beijing Games, are banned from competing because of their country's invasion of Ukraine.
The top five from the Winter Olympics last month did not compete leaving the way open for the Americans to take gold having finished sixth in Beijing.
