Korean teen wins gold at ISU Junior Grand Prix

Cha Jun-hwan / Yonhap

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan, 15, won the third event of the men’s singles in the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix held Saturday in Yokohama, Japan.

He is the second Korean figure skater to win the men’s competitin following Lee June-hyoung who won it in 2014.

“I’m very happy about being able to earn such a great result today. I worked hard to prepare for this competition and feel that my hard work paid off,” he said in a statement after winning the competition.

He expressed hopes of appearing in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

Cha finished second in the short program held a day ago with 79.34 points, following American figure skater Vincent Zhou. He achieved a come-from-behind victory by scoring 160.13 points in the free skating, Saturday.

Cha, a two-time Korean champion, earned 239.49 points in total, defeating Zhou to become the gold medalist.

He broke the world record, which was 238.26 points set by Japanese figure skater Uno Shoma during the 2014-2015 ISU Junior Grand Prix.

His triple axel, a jump with a forward take off, and quadruple salchow were pretty consistent.

“I feel comfortable about doing triple axels because I have been practicing since last year,” Cha said.

The teen has been trained under Canadian Olympic silver medalist Brian Oser since last year. In July, Oser, who was also a coach for Olympic gold medalist Kim Yu-na, praised Cha for the progress he has made.

“He’s developing into a young man now. He’s getting stronger,” he said during a media interview in July after the ISU Junior Grand Prix Qualifying event in Seoul.

“There have been a few times during his growth spurt where we’ve had some issues. But he’s been very focused. Sometimes we take a step backward and then take two steps forward.”

Oser said Cha will be one of the skaters to compete against for medals at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.