Tallinn (AFP) - South Korean champion Cha Jun-hwan warmed up for the Winter Olympics in two weeks time with his first gold at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn on Sunday.
The 20-year-old led all the way to take a first men's medal in the competition for South Korea ahead of Japanese pair Kazuki Tomono and Kao Miura after the free skate on the final day of competition.
Cha overcame a fall on his opening quadruple jump to Puccini's "Turdandot" but picked himself up and completed his routine which included a quadruple Salchow and six triple jumps.
The Korean scored his season's best 174.26 points for the free skate and 273.22 points overall, with Tomono achieving 268.99 and Miura 251.07.
"I'm really happy with how I fought through and gave my everything," said Cha, who trains in Toronto with Canadian two-time Olympic medallist Brian Orser.
"Today's performance will be a great step for the Olympics and the rest of the season.
"When I came to this competition I was thinking this will be helpful for the Olympics and the season, not about medalling."
Tomono, 23, a bronze medallist in the Grand Prix Rostelecom Cup, missed his second quad jump to the music from "La La Land", but nevertheless set a new personal best of 171.89 for the free skating.
Sixteen-year-old Miura pushed through despite a pulled leg muscle to also achieve a new personal best score with 162.70 points for his flamenco routine to music by Spanish guitar maestro Vicente Amigo.
"I was wondering how I would do today," said the Japanese junior champion.
"But I was able to have three quads in my programme so I’m very happy about that.And I think I was able to show the world what kind of a skater I am."
Most of the top skaters from Asia and North America skipped the competition before the Winter Games in Beijing because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
China have not sent a team to Estonia.
Japan's Mai Mihara won the women's gold on Saturday with the United States winning both pairs and ice dancing with Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov and Caroline Green and Michael Parsons respectively.
