Armenian pair finishes in the top 8 at the 2026 World Championships with a career-best result

On March 26, the winners and medalists in the pairs skating event were determined at the 2026 World Figure Skating Championships. The Armenian duo Karina Akopova / Nikita Rakhmanin finished in 8th place, achieving a career-best result of 190.46 points in total.

In the free program, the Armenian pair executed almost all elements cleanly but made a mistake on the penultimate element — the lift. Without this error, they could have aimed for a higher final placement.

The world champions were Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase / Nikita Volodin, bronze medalists of the last Olympics. Silver went to Georgia’s European champions Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava. Bronze medals were won by Canada’s Lia Pereira / Trennt Michaud.

Top 10 overall standings (pairs):

1. Hase / Volodin (Germany) — 228.33
2. Metelkina / Berulava (Georgia) — 218.41
3. Pereira / Michaud (Canada) — 216.09
4. Nagaoka / Moriguchi (Japan) — 209.13
5. Pavlova / Sviatchenko (Hungary) — 205.08
6. Efimova / Mitrofanov (USA) — 202.51
7. Hocke / Kunkel (Germany) — 194.11
8. Akopova / Rakhmanin (Armenia) — 190.46
9. Zhang / Huang (China) — 184.90
10. Vuillamoz / Bovard (Switzerland) — 184.56

It is worth noting that at the 2026 Olympics, Akopova and Rakhmanin placed 14th.