World Champions Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara of Japan skated off with their fourth ISU Grand Prix gold medal at the Grand Prix de France in Angers (FRA) Saturday.

Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) golden in France

Two-time and reigning ISU World Pairs Champions Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara of Japan added another prestigious title to their impressive resume by taking gold at the Grand Prix de France. Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps of Canada earned the silver medal and the bronze went to Hungary’s Maria Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko. 

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) in the Pairs Free Skating at the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Angers, France © ISU

Miura/Kihara started with a high triple twist into their captivating “Gladiator” program and went on to complete a throw triple flip and loop, as well as a side by side triple Salchow. Miura only singled the two Axels in the combination with a triple toe. 

The 2025 ISU Four Continents Champions netted 139.71 points and accumulated 219.15 points overall for their win. 

“We were able to finish our performance without getting injured. I would give ourselves 120% as a mark,” Kihara said. “Every time I go on the ice and perform, I pray that I will not injure Riku, and I will not get injured myself. Obviously, there are always things that we can improve on, but I'd like to put a positive spin on things,” he added.

“In our last competition, in the second half of the program, we had two mistakes,” Miura noted. “We tried, coming into this event, to completely erase those mistakes. Today, we were able to land those two elements cleanly, so we were very happy about that. 

“That said, we have to work on our combination jump. And the last step got a negative GOE [Grade of Execution], so we'll make sure that it doesn't happen again.”

Stellato-Dudek/Deschamps made a very unexpected mistake, right at the beginning, when they singled the twist. 

Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps (CAN) in the Pairs Free Skating at the ISU Grand Prix in Angers, France © ISU

The 2024 ISU World Champions also wobbled on their triple toe-double Axel-double Axel sequence, but recovered to produce a rare level-four outside death spiral and difficult lifts in their romantic Flamenco program. The 2024 ISU Four Continents Champions scored 123.40 points and remained in second place at 197.66 points. 

“The twist never happened before in practice,” Stellato-Dudek said. “Our alignment must have been off. I hit his foot on my toe pick, and my right foot got caught on his leg, so I couldn't move it to initiate the rotation. It was equally as shocking to us, as I'm sure it was to everyone else.”

Deschamps added: “It's always difficult for any athlete when your first element doesn't go well, especially as a surprise. It doesn't give you a good momentum. To get back together was harder, and you have to fight through the whole program because of that.”

Pavlova/Alexei Sviatchenko’s performance to “Without You” featured a triple twist, side by side triple Salchow and triple throws, but lost points on their death spiral and their planned toeloop-double Axel sequence.

Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko (HUN) in the Pairs Free Skating at the ISU Grand Prix in Angers, France © ISU

With 122.61 points for the Free Skating and 192.76 overall, the Hungarian couple collected the bronze, their fourth ISU Grand Prix medal. 

“We would rate our performance seven (out of 10),” Pavlova commented. “We had a big mistake. That was unfortunate. I was surprised when Lesha (Alexei) did the step-out on the triple toe. I was like, what do I do? But everything else was good and we were happy with how we did. And from now, we need to just be better.”

Katie McBeath/Daniil Parkman (USA) came fourth with their performance to “Caruso” on 178.08 points, followed by teammates Audrey Shin/Balazs Nagy (USA) in fifth (173.30 points). 

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