Current European champions Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri from Italy were second with 219.85 points.
The coaster fell once, but it was not on the required element.
“We’ve had to dig very, very deep a lot of times, but I know we wouldn’t be sitting here without all this experience,” Chok said, adding that the fall came as a shock to her. “I just caught my heel on the ice and it was so surprising.”
Chock and Bates, three-time Four Continents champions, have been together for 12 years.
They won a silver medal at the 2015 World Championships in Shanghai, bronze in Boston 2016 and bronze last year in Montpellier.
They also competed in six Grand Prix finals, winning four medals — all silver.
“We’ve been working towards this goal for so many years,” Bates said. “It was exciting and stressful at the same time. I know the ice dance field is very competitive. We’ve been competing with all those teams for so many years.
“We really wanted to focus on ourselves, skate the best we can and highlight all the work we’ve put into these programs this year.”
In other news, Shoma Uno won the quadruple free skate on Saturday to become the first Japanese man to defend his title at the world figure skating championships.
Uno, skating to music that included Bach, attempted five quadruple jumps at the Saitama Super Arena. He landed them all except the quad salch which he underrotated for a total of 301.14 points.
South Korean skater Cha Jun-hwan was second with 296.03 points, followed by American teenager Ilia Malinin, who became the first skater to win the quadruple axel at the world championships and finished with 288.44 points.
“The free skate was far from perfect, but I put everything into it,” said Uno. “Every jump was uncertain, but I managed to get a good result.”
Canada’s Keegan Messing finished seventh with a total score of 265.16.
Uno capped an impressive performance by the hosts that saw Japanese skaters win gold in three of the four disciplines for the first time in history. Kaori Sakamoto won the women’s title, while Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won doubles gold.
“The past two weeks have been very difficult because I haven’t been in top form and I’ve caused a lot of concern for everyone around me,” said Uno. “But I was able to pay them back and show my gratitude with my performance today.”
Cha, third after the short program, moved into second place with a powerful routine that included a quad salchow and a quad toeloop.
Cha landed all of his jumps cleanly except for a triple flip en route to becoming the first South Korean to medal at the world championships.
“It’s an honor to be the first skater as a Korean skater to win a (world) medal,” Cha said.
Malinin attempted six quadruple jumps. He landed his opening quad axel but under-rotated the quad lutz that was part of the combination and was deducted points on the quad flip and quad lutz.
It was Malinja’s first medal at the world championships. He finished ninth in his 2022 debut in Montpellier, France.
“I was nervous at the beginning so I was glad I pulled it off,” said Malinin. “I’m very shocked at how much I’ve improved this season.”
Coached by his parents who represented Uzbekistan, 18-year-old Malinin is the only skater to land the quadruple axel, considered the most difficult jump in figure skating, at the competition.
Russia’s dominant figure skating team was excluded from the World Championships for the second year in a row due to the invasion of Ukraine.
The 2024 World Cup will be held in Montreal, Canada.
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Associated Press