'Harbin Champion' Cha Jun-hwan (Korea University) succeeded in winning a medal at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships for the third time in his career.
On the 22nd, at the 2025 International Skating Union (ISU) Four Continents Figure Skating Championships held at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul, Cha Jun-hwan scored 95.27 points in Technical Element Score (TES) and 90.51 points in Program Component Score (PCS), totaling 185.78 points in the men's singles free skate.
Adding his short program score of 79.24 points, he achieved a total score of 265.02 points, earning the silver medal by finishing second behind Mikhail Shaidorov (Kazakhstan), who scored 285.10 points. The bronze medal went to Jimmy Ma of the United States, who scored 245.01 points.
The Four Continents Championships is a major competition where athletes from four continents?Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Africa?compete, excluding Europe. This marks the third time Cha Jun-hwan has stood on the podium at this event. He won the championship in 2022 and earned the bronze medal last year.
Following his gold medal win at the 2025 Harbin Winter Asian Games earlier this year, Cha Jun-hwan's strong performance at the Four Continents Championships bodes well for the upcoming ISU World Championships next month.
Performing 19th out of 22 competitors, Cha Jun-hwan began his free skate program to the melody of "Balada para un Loco."
He flawlessly executed the first challenging element, a quadruple Salchow, earning a base value of 9.70 points and a Grade of Execution (GOE) of 3.60 points.
However, he lost timing on the following quadruple toe loop, converting it into a double jump and losing nearly 10 points.
Despite this, Cha Jun-hwan remained composed and continued his performance steadily.
He cleanly executed a triple Lutz-triple loop combination jump and a triple Axel with three and a half rotations. Performing a step sequence with large movements at Level 4, he delivered an elegant performance in the latter half of the program, which carries a 10% bonus.
He flawlessly completed a triple flip-single Euler-triple Salchow combination jump, followed by a perfect triple Axel-double Axel sequence jump.
With a Level 4 change foot combination spin that drew enthusiastic responses from the fans, he successfully landed the final jump element, a triple flip, receiving warm applause.
Afterward, Cha Jun-hwan increased his speed with fast skating and performed a fantastic choreographic sequence, finishing his routine with a Level 4 flying camel spin and a Level 4 flying change foot combination spin.
Kim Hyun-kyum (expected to enroll at Korea University), who also competed, scored a total of 226.12 points and placed 7th.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
