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Shoma Uno capped off an impressive showing for Japan at the 2023 World Figure Skating Championships with his second consecutive gold medal in men's singles competition.
The 25-year-old posted a score of 196.51 in the free skate on Saturday to record a combined score of 301.14.
Despite an early stumble on his landing of the quadruple Salchow, Uno finished with the highest score of any competitor in the free skate.
Uno's combined total was more than five points better than silver medalist Cha Jun-hwan (296.03). Ilia Malinin took home the bronze with a combined score of 288.44.
ISU Figure Skating @ISU_Figure🏆 Final results for the Men's event at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2023 in Saitama, 🇯🇵<br><br>🥇 Shoma Uno<br>🥈 Junhwan Cha<br>🥉 Ilia Malinin<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FigureSkating?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FigureSkating</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldFigure?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WorldFigure</a> <a href="https://t.co/wgnsujV0D9">pic.twitter.com/wgnsujV0D9</a>
Saturday's triumph capped off an eventful week for Uno that started with him injuring his ankle during practice on Tuesday.
"I feel like it's not going to get better unless something big changes," Uno told reporters about the injury. "I don't know what kind of result I can aim for in my present state."
On Wednesday, 24 hours before the men's short program, Uno said his jumps in practice leading up to the World Championships were "terrible."
"I was fine until about two weeks ago but last week it became terrible," he told reporters via an interpreter. "[This season] I've been competing like I've been practicing which is good, but now since I'm not practicing well I don't feel great about my chances here."
You would never have been able to tell there were any issues once the real competition began.
Uno entered the free skate with a lead of more than four points over Malinin after the short program (104.63 to 100.38). They were the only skaters to earn more than 100 points in the first event, though Jun-hwan was close at 99.64.
Jun-hwan, who moved into second place in the final standings with a 196.39 score in the free skate, became the first South Korean men's skater to medal at the world championships. Malinin is the second consecutive American to win bronze after Vincent Zhou did it in 2022.
This marks the fourth time Uno has medaled at the World Championships. He won his first gold in 2022 and won back-to-back silver medals in 2017 and 2018. The Nagoya-born star also has three Olympic medals on his resume.
Japan took home gold in three of the four events at this year's World Championships. Kaori Sakamoto won her second consecutive women's singles title on Friday. Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara won the pairs competition.
Ice dance duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates from the United States won their first World Championships gold medal.
