Madison Chock and Evan Bates took the lead after the rhythm dance at the NHK Trophy, tying a record 25th career Grand Prix figure skating podium.

Chock and Bates, two-time world champions in ice dancing, collected 86.32 points in Tokyo. They are 6.68 points ahead of Americans Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko, who participated in the free dance, live broadcast peacock Friday night.

Chock, 32, and Bates, 35, have made it to the Grand Prix regular season podium 19 times in a row, with 17 consecutive top-two finishes (going back to 2013).

Last month, an eight-race winning streak stretching back to the start of 2023 was ended by Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson at Skate America, the first competition of the season and the opener of the Grand Prix Series. Chock and Bates noted a decline in rhythm dancing there.

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Their rhythm dance scores on Friday were the third-best in the world this season, behind Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri and Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who joined them on the podium at the last two world championships.

None of Chock and Bates’ closest rivals enter NHK. With Carreira and Ponomarenko placing second behind a personal best rhythm dance, the USA had a chance to record the first one-two in ice dancing at a Grand Prix outside of Skate America.

Carreira, 24, and Ponomarenko, 23, finished second behind Chock and Bates at last January’s national competition and then finished seventh at the world championships. They have finished fourth in each of their last four Grand Prix starts. Their only podium finish in a purely international Grand Prix came in their debut season in 2018.

The world’s best skaters each compete twice in the six-event Grand Prix Series. The top six in each discipline of the series will qualify for the Grand Prix Final in December, where the world’s best skaters come together for the first time this season.

Chock and Bates have qualified for a record eight Grand Prix Finals in ice dancing, and would qualify for ninth if they win the NHK (and possibly finish anywhere on the podium at the NHK).

Also on Friday, Japan topped three other short programs with women’s three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto, men’s Olympic and world silver medalist Yuma Kagiayama and 2023 World doubles champions Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara.

Sakamoto, who has won the last four Grand Prix starts, achieved the triple Lutz and triple flip-triple toe loop combination in his first program this season, all with positive performance ratings. The score of 78.93 is the world’s best short program score since the 2022 World Championships.

Japan also took second and third places with Mone Chiba and Yuna Aoki putting them in position to take the country to the Grand Prix women’s podium for the second time in four races this season. Sakamoto achieved great success at Skate Canada two weeks ago.

Two-time U.S. champions Alysa Liu and Bradie Tennell finished fourth and fifth, respectively, thanks to errors on their opening jump combinations.

Coming back from a two-year retirement, Liu finished sixth at Skate Canada two weeks ago. Tennell, coming back from a broken ankle last fall, finished fifth at Skate America.

Kagiyama achieved the quadruple Salchow and quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination with the highest degrees of execution of all technical elements of the men’s short program.

The only person to achieve an even better score this season, collecting 105.70 points, was world champion Ilia Malinin, who has already qualified for the Grand Prix Final. The Japanese men took the top three places in the short circuit and managed to reach the podium in an all-international NHK Grand Prix for the second time after 2006.

U.S. pairs champions Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea sit third behind Miura and Kihara, three weeks after taking second at Skate America.

Kam and O’Shea are trying to become the fourth U.S. duo to qualify for a Grand Prix Final in the last 15 races. A third-place finish will give them a good chance, but second place is almost certain to get them there.

2024 NHK Trophy Figure Skating Results

Women’s Short Program
1. Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) — 78.93
2. Mone Chiba (JPN) — 71.69
3. Yuna Aoki (JPN) — 69.78
4. Alysa Liu (USA) — 65.03
5. Bradie Tennell (USA) – 62.05
6. Lara Naki Gutmann (ITA) — 61.51
7. Wi Seo-Yeong (KOR) — 61.43
8. Olga Mikutina (AUT) — 60.94
9. Ekaterina Kukarova (POL) — 56.46
10. Lindsay Thorngren (USA) – 54.79
11. Niina Petrokina (EST) — 52.98
12. Kim Ye-Lim (KOR) — 51.32

Men’s Short Program
1. Yuma Kagiyama (JPN) — 105.70
2. Kao Miura (JPN) — 102.96
3. Tatsuya Tsuboi (JPN) — 85.02
4.Andrew Torgashev (USA) — 84.36
5.Daniel Grassl (ITA)-83.01
6. Vladimir Litvintsev (AZE) — 81.85
7. Matteo Rizzo (ITA) – 81.79
8. Gabriele Frangipani (ITA) – 81.33
9. Mark Gorodnitsky (ISR) – 77.74
10. Jason Brown (USA) — 77.08
11. Tomoki Hiwatashi (USA) — 74.59
12. Lim Ju-Heon (KOR) — 74.31

Couples’ Short Program
1. Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara (JPN) — 71.90
2. Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) — 70.28
3. Ellie Kam/Danny O’Shea (USA) — 69.15
4. Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (Germany) — 67.37
5. Yuna Nagaoka/Sumitada Moriguchi (JPN) — 60.32
6. Daria Danilova/Michel Tsiba (Netherlands) — 58.90
7. Anastasia Vaipan-Law/Luke Digby (Great Britain) – 58.17
8. Isabelle Martins/Ryan Bedard (CAN) — 48.95

Rhythm Dance
1. Madison Chock/Evan Bates (USA) — 86.32
2. Christina Carreira/Anthony Ponomarenko (USA) — 79.64
3. Allison Reed/Saulius Ambrulevicius (LTU) — 77.91
4. Caroline Green/Michael Parsons (USA) — 74.38
5. Loicia Demougeot/Theo le Mercier (FRA) — 69.24
6. Jennifer Janse van Rensburg/Benjamin Steffan (GER) — 68.82
7. Yuka Orihara/Juho Pirinen (Finland) — 67.34
8. Marie Dupayge/Thomas Nabais (FRA) – 64.52
9. Utana Yoshida/Masaya Morita (JPN) — 64.30
10. Azusa Tanaka/Shingo Nishiyama (JPN) — 59.15

Alysa Liu returns to senior figure skating competition this month after a two-year retirement.