Japanese figure skaters Nozomi Watanabe and Akiyuki Kido came fourth after the ice dance compulsory routine at the NHK Trophy, the sixth event of the International Skating Union's Grand Prix series, on Thursday.
Miki Ando practices during the first day of the NHK Trophy figure skating competition in Osaka.
Watanabe and Kido collected 29.50 points with their performance to the tango to finish behind Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon from Canada, who moved into first with a score of 36.41 at Namihaya Dome in Osaka Prefecture.
Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski from Bulgaria took second (35.10) while third place went to Russia's Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski (30.21).
In the pairs, Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany took top honors while Utako Wakamatsu and Jean-Sebastien Fecteau of Canada were fourth.
Japan's Miki Ando, who came second at the Cup of Russia last month, and Yukari Nakano, a third-place finisher at Skate Canada, will appear with Fumie Suguri in the women's short program on the second day of competition on Friday.