Seventeen-year-old Kao Miura became the youngest Four Continents Figure Skating Championships men's winner Saturday, breaking the record set by Beijing gold medalist Nathan Chen, and capping a successful day of competition for Japan.
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara earlier won the pairs competition, raising expectations of a breakthrough world title next month in Japan.
In the men's free skate, former junior national champion Miura top-scored with 189.63 to total 281.53, good enough for a 5.96-point margin of victory over Canada's Keegan Messing. Japan's Shun Sato jumped three places from the short program to finish third on 259.14.
"I could skate with good changes in tempo," said Miura, who landed his quad-triple toe loop combination en route to scoring his personal-high score in the win. "I've gotten better at holding on to a lead, and I'm proud of that."
Chen, the American three-time world champion, was 17-years, nine-months old when he became the previous youngest winner in 2017.
After becoming the first Japanese pair to win a Grand Prix Final in December, Riku Miura and Kihara, who skated at last year's Beijing Olympics, are now the first to win the event at the Four Continents, contested by skaters from outside Europe.
Leading after the short program at Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, Miura and Kihara also topped the free skate to total 208.24 points. Emily Chan and Spencer Howe of the United States finished second on 201.11, with Canada's Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps a further 7.27 back in third place.
"It was a tournament to challenge ourselves in seeing how much we've improved," said Miura after coming eighth three years ago in their first season together.
Because of the venue's altitude, Kihara said that midway through the performance he whispered to Miura, telling her to save some energy, and that it paid dividends in solid spins and throw jumps later on.
"The effort we've been putting in together is starting to bear fruit," said Kihara. "This is not the goal and we want to keep going."
Japan's Saitama Super Arena will host the March 22-26 world championships, where Miura and Kihara will aim to improve on their silver medal last year and become Japan's first pairs world champs.
