After matching a best-ever result for Japan in ice dance at the Pyeongchang Winter Games on Tuesday, Kana Muramoto and Chris Reed are setting their sights even higher at the upcoming world figure skating championships.

The couple finished 15th overall -- equaling Japan's best Olympic showing by Nozomi Watanabe and Akiyuki Kido at the 2006 Turin Games -- but reckon they have proved they belong among the best and are now targeting the top 10 at next month's worlds in Milan.

Muramoto and Reed produced a graceful free skate at Gangneung Ice Arena but were unable to improve on their overall rank after what they felt was a disappointing effort in the short dance on Monday.

But first-time Winter Olympian Muramoto said, "I think going into the free dance we had nothing to lose, so we were saying let's just enjoy this moment because there are not a lot of chances to go to the Olympics."

"We told each other to just enjoy and then embrace our moment together and prove to the world that we belong with the top teams. We really did that well."

She added, "It felt great. Yesterday for the short program I was really nervous but today I felt way calmer and grounded on the ice. It felt great to show our free program because it is very special for us and I think we were able to show to the world what we have got."

Muramoto and Reed teamed up in 2015. Reed was searching for a new partner after his sister and skating partner Cathy, who he had competed with at two Winter Games, retired from the sport.

"It's been one of the best highlights of our career so far, especially in my long career. This is definitely up there with one of the greats," said Reed.

"I thought we delivered one of the best programs for a long program. It's one of my favorite free dances to skate, so this performance here at the Olympics is a dream come true."

In their debut season in 2015-2016, Muramoto and Reed finished 15th at the world championships and seventh at the Four Continents.

The pair have triumphed in all three national championships they have competed in since teaming up, taking the title in 2015, 2016 and 2017. They came to Pyeongchang boosted by finishing third at the Four Continents last month in Taipei, their first podium finish at the event.

However, in order to achieve their goal of finishing in the top 10 in Milan, Muramoto says improvements need to be made in their short dance.

"We want to perform a stronger short dance because we haven't done that this season," she said.

"Definitely this free was a confidence boost going into the worlds and I think we proved to the judges that we are a really strong Japanese ice dance team and we are really excited to go the worlds."

"Our goal throughout the entire season and when we started was to go to the top 10 in the world. That is our ultimate goal but placement-wise we don't really think strongly about it, we just think more of showing what we can do then the result will come."

Reed also believes they can go to Milan with high spirits following their efforts in South Korea.

"It was a confidence boost that we could do a solid performance. We had only one week to train here so we focused a lot on making elements a little bit more consistent and today was just one of the products of what we have accomplished."

More on the Olympics:

Olympics: Canadian skating pair Virtue and Moir win ice dance gold

Olympics: Ice dancers Muramoto, Reed advance to free dance

Olympics: Kodaira pays tribute to late friend after gold medal win