Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the pairs title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Boston on Thursday, while defending champion Ilia Malinin seized command of the men's competition.

The duo opened their routine to Benjamin Clementine's "Adios" but struggled to complete their triple twist and triple toe loop jumps.

Despite the early problems, they recovered to post a score of 143.22 after leading the short program.