Cha Jun-hwan is first Korean man to win gold at Four Continents

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Published: 24 Jan. 2022, 16:30

Cha Jun-hwan is first Korean man to win gold at Four Continents

Cha Jun-hwan performs an Ina Bauer in his free skate program at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia on Sunday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Cha Jun-hwan poses during the award ceremony at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia on Sunday. [EPA/YONHAP]

Cha Jun-hwan won Korea's first-ever men's gold medal at the ISU Four Continents Championships 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia on Sunday, while in the women's event, Lee Hae-in won silver and Kim Ye-lim took bronze.

After topping the short program on Saturday with a personal-best 98.96 points, Cha put on an exceptional performance on Sunday to top the free skating program with 174.26 points, winning his first major senior international title, Korea’s first men’s gold medal at the Four Continents and Korea’s second gold medal ever at the annual ISU event.

The first time Korea won the Four Continents was in 2009 in Vancouver, when Olympic gold medalist Kim Yuna took the women’s gold medal.

Cha had a clean run on Saturday, opening his short program with a quadruple salchow that extended his personal best to 98.96 points. His previous personal best had been 97.33 points set at the 2019 Four Continents.

On Sunday, Cha opened his free skate program with another quad jump, a quadruple toe loop, but his jump was under-rotated and he fell trying to land, losing 3.80 points in his grade of execution (GOE) score.

However, Cha was still able to overcome that mistake, following up with a clean quadruple salchow and a triple lutz-triple loop combination and receiving high GOE scores for his choreographic sequence after a beautiful Ina Bauer perfectly matching his music, Nessun Dorma, a piece from Turandot by Giacomo Puccini. Kazuki Tomono of Japan won silver and Miura Sena, also of Japan, took bronze.

The Four Continents is an annual ISU event that is open to all non-European skaters. Cha was one of the top skaters going into the event, especially since two-time gold medalist, defending champion and world record holder Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan decided to skip it with the Beijing Winter Games starting next week.

Lee Hae-in performs during the women's free program at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia on Sunday. Lee eventually won the silver medal. [EPA/YONHAP]

Kim Ye-lim performs during the women's free program at the ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia on Sunday. Kim eventually won the bronze medal. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

Alongside Cha, Lee Hae-in and Kim also won their first Four Continent medals on Sunday.

Lee Hae-in won Korea’s second-ever silver medal with a score of 213.52 points, after taking second place in both the short program and free skate. In 2020, You Young won Korea's first silver medal in the women’s event.

Kim won Korea’s first bronze medal with a score of 209.91 points after taking third place in the short program and fourth place in the free skate. Mai Mihara of Japan won the gold medal with 218.03 points.

This is the most medals Korea has won at an ISU Four Continents. A total of six Koreans had entered the tournament, with Lee Si-hyeong finishing in seventh place and Kyeong Jae-seok taking 14th in the men’s event while You took sixth place in the women’s event.

The Four Continents will have served as a good tune-up opportunity for the four skaters who will compete at the Beijing Winter Games, as the skaters will be performing the same short and free skate programs on the big stage.

"Today I feel really happy about my performance," Cha said on Sunday. "Until my program finished I really fought through and gave my everything and did what I trained. Today’s performance will be a great step toward my next challenge — the Olympics and the rest of the season — so I’m really happy about everything today.

"When I came to this competition, I was thinking this would be helpful for the Olympics and the rest of the season. I was not thinking about medaling or winning, just training and doing what I did before. I’m happy that I got a medal and won the competition.”

Cha will be competing in Beijing alongside Lee Si-hyeong, marking the first time Korea has sent two male skaters to the Olympics. You and Kim will represent Korea in the women’s event.

Cha is the only of the four to have appeared at the Olympics before. At the 2018 PyeongChang Games, Cha finished 15th, becoming the youngest-ever skater to compete in the men’s event at an Olympics.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]