TOKYO — Reigning world pairs silver medalists Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier completed first in free skate on Saturday to steer the United States to its fifth determine skating World Team Trophy.

Knierim and Frazier, first after the Friday’s brief program, obtained 147.87 factors within the free skate to complete 4.18 factors forward of Japanese skaters Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara to present their crew a 17-point lead.

Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy had been third with 130.22 factors.

The United States completed with 120 factors, 25 forward of South Korea. Host Japan was third with 94 factors. Italy was fourth with 83 factors adopted by France (80) and Canada (68).

Jason Brown landed a triple axel, double axel sequence and 6 extra triple jumps to obtain 183.43 factors and end third within the males’s free skate. The 10 factors he obtained was sufficient to safe the gold for the Americans.

“It’s been so fun getting to talk on behalf of my team the last few days, but I’m just going to let the skating to speak for itself,” Brown mentioned. “I’m really proud of them and what they put out and I feel like they left it all out on the ice.”

Team USA got here into the ultimate day of competitors with a snug 15-point lead and Knierim and Frazier solidified it with a robust free program.

The 2022 world champions produced a triple twist, throw triple loop and flip. Their solely mistake got here when Knierim missed a triple salchow.

Jun Hwan Cha of South Korea received the lads’s free skate with 187.82 factors to safe the utmost 12 factors for his crew to overhaul Japan.

Matteo Rizzo of Italy was second with 187.35.

Team USA had already secured gold earlier than 2023 world bronze medalist Ilia Malinin took to the ice. The 18-year-old skater recognized for his quad jumps fell on his opening quad axel.

He recovered to land three different quads however fell on an underrotated quad lutz to complete fifth within the free skating with 173.64 factors.

A biennial occasion, the ISU World Team Trophy options the highest six groups from the 2022-23 season: Japan, the United States, Canada, France, Italy and South Korea.

Each crew consists of two males, two girls, one pair skating couple and one ice dance couple.

The standings are calculated in accordance with the sum of crew factors achieved in every part with a most of 12 factors in every occasion.

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