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NAGANO, Japan: Four Continents champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White won their second Grand Prix ice dance title of the season at the NHK Trophy Sunday, booking a place in the elite final of the series.
The US duo danced to the music of "The Phantom of the Opera" without making mistakes to earn 100.79 points in the free dance, the final section of the three-part ice dance competition.
They finished with a total score of 201.97 points, bettering their previous personal best of 201.10 they marked in winning the season's second Grand Prix, the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow, two weeks ago.
British siblings Sinead and John Kerr finished a distant second with 177.73 and Canada's Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier were third at 165.89.
The NHK Trophy was the fourth event of the six-stage ISU Grand Prix series.
In the series, each skater is allowed to compete in just two events. The best six in points standings in men's and women's singles as well as pairs and ice dance qualify for the Grand Prix Final in Tokyo in early December.
The Kerrs, who were third at the season-opening Grand Prix, the Trophee Eric Bompard in Paris, bungled on a synchronised twizzle as they danced to "Krwling" by Linkin Park.
They collected 86.16 points in the free-dance section and Crone and Poirier 84.51.
"It feels really good," White said. "I think me and Meryl skated well."
"It's just a testament to how much practice we put into it," the 22-year-old University of Michigan student said of the high score he earned with Davis.
"We've been together for 13 years now and I think it has finally started to pay off."
Davis and White won the US national championships last season when five-time champions Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto pulled out. They placed fourth at the world championships where Belbin and Agosto were runners-up to Russia's Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin.
- AFP/yb
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