Japan's Miura/Kihara lead pairs short program at figure skating worlds

SAITAMA, Japan, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara scored a personal best of 80.72 points to lead the pairs short program at the World Figure Skating Championships here on Wednesday.

Miura and Kihara enjoyed a 6.08-point advantage over defending world champions Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier of the United States, who collected 74.64 points.

Italian tandem Sara Conti and Niccolo