Saitama, Japan (AFP)

Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates took a big step towards their first ice dance world title Friday after winning the rhythm dance at the world figure skating championships in Japan.

Chock and Bates scored 91.94 — less than a point behind the world record of 92.73 — to lead Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri on 88.21 and Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier on 87.34.

France’s reigning Olympic and world ice dance champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are sitting out the competition, and Russian skaters have again been banned because of the war in Ukraine.

Chock and Bates went into the world championships in Saitama, north of Tokyo, as favourites and Bates said they were happy with how they “handled the moment”.

“I felt like we were relaxed, we were engaged with the audience,” he said.

“I took a moment before we skated to look around and just appreciate the love for figure skating that’s in the building.”

Guignard and Fabbri won the European title in January but Fabbri said their performance on the world stage was “by far the best” they had done this season.

“We felt better than in all the other competitions we did so far so we are happy that we achieved what we did,” he said.

“The feeling was right.”

The free dance is on Saturday.