ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2023: Men's Short Program, Pairs Results

Reigning men's world figure skating champion Shoma Uno took first in the short program with 104.63 points to take the lead at the World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kiahara won the pairs competition for their first gold medal on the world stage.

They took second in the free skate on Thursday, but their first-place short program performance the day before helped catapult them to the top of the podium.

Here's a look at how the men's short and pairs free skate programs went down Thursday.

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Men's Short Program Results

1. Shoma Uno (Japan): 104.63

2. Ilia Malinin (United States): 100.38

3. Junhwan Cha (South Korea): 99.64

4. Keegan Messing (Canada): 98.75

5. Kevin Aymoz (France): 95.56

6. Jason Brown (United States): 94.17

7. Kazuki Tomono (Japan): 92.68

8. Daniel Grassl (Italy): 86.50

9. Lukas Britschgi (Switzerland): 86.18

10. Vladimir Litvintsev (Azerbaijan): 82.71

Full results here via isuresults.com.

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Pairs Results

1. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara (Japan): 222.16 (80.72 Short) + (141.44 Free Skate)

2. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier (United States): 217.48 (74.64 Short) + (142.84 Free Skate)

3. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii (Italy): 208.08 (73.24 Short + (134.84 Free Skate)

4. Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps (Canada): 199.97 (72.81 Short) + (127.16 Free Skate)

5. Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe (United States): 194.73 (70.23 Short) + (124.50 Free Skate)

6. Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud (Canada): 193.00 (65.31 Short) + (127.69 Free Skate)

7. Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko (Hungary): 190.67 (64.43 Short) + (126.24 Free Skate)

8. Anastasia Golubeva and Hektor Giotopoulos Moore (Australia): 189.47 (61.95 Short) + (127.52 Free Skate)

9. Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel (Germany): 184.60 (60.89 Short) + (123.71 Free Skate)

10. Alisa Efimova and Ruben Blommaert (Germany): 184.46 (65.23 Short) + (119.23 Free Skate)

Full results here via isuresults.com.

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Men's Short Program

Uno holds the edge over a trio of skaters in the United States' Ilia Malinin, South Korea's Junhwan Cha and Canada's Keegan Messing, who are all within two points of each other for second.

Uno took center stage Thursday, however, as he finds himself in the driver's seat for back-to-back World Championship titles.

Jackie Wong of Rocker Skating provided more details of his program:

Uno spoke afterward, per Golden Skate:

Uno has won silver (2018) and bronze (2022) Olympic medals in individual competitions as well as silver medals in the 2017 and 2018 World Championships.

The 18-year-old Malinin holds the edge for silver right now. He performed quite well on Thursday and was pleased with how his practice led to positive results.

Malinin, who is the only skater to ever land a quadruple axel in competition, is coming off a gold medal in the 2022 World Junior Championships.

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Pairs Results

Miura and Kiahara enjoyed a great 2022 season with bronze in the Olympics and silver at the World Championships. They're on top of the pairs skating world now after earning a gold medal with a sensational performance in Saitama.

This marked the first-ever world pairs title for Japan.

It wasn't a guarantee that the pair would win the gold after some tense moments in the free skate. Wong explained more.

However, they did well enough to win and make history. Their coach, Bruno Marcotte, spoke afterward.

That was good enough to overcome a strong performance from Brandon Frazier and Alexa Knierim of the United States, who won silver at the 2022 Olympics and gold in last year's World Championships.

The duo was very happy with its performance.

They also did something no U.S. pairs team had done since 1996:

The World Championships continue Friday with the ice dance (rhythm dance) and the women's free skating program.