Jack Gallagher 
Rio Nakata, the men's gold medalist at the 2025 ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships, displays his medal after the competition on February 28 in Debrecen, Hungary. (©KYODO)
Read the full story on SportsLook - Rio Nakata Wins World Junior Championships Title in Dramatic Fashion
Rio Nakata vaulted from second place after the short program to capture the men's title at the World Junior Championships with a strong free skate on Friday evening, February 28 in Debrecen, Hungary.
The 16-year-old overtook defending champion Minkyu Seo of South Korea, who finished second, to top the podium for the biggest victory of his career.
Nakata's total score in the win was 248.99 points. Seo finished with 241.45, while Slovakia's Adam Hagara was third at 233.93. American Jacob Sanchez took fourth on 230.41.
Shunsuke Nakamura came in sixth with 225.69, while Sena Takahashi finished ninth on 216.45.
In winning, Nakata became the Hinomaru's seventh world junior male titlist, joining the likes of Yuzuru Hanyu, Daisuke Takahashi, Takahiko Kozuka, Nobunari Oda, Shoma Uno and Kao Miura, who all accomplished the feat.
How Nakata Secured the World Junior Championships Title
Nakata skated to songs from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtrack and nearly went down on his opening quadruple toe loop when he stepped out and went down to one knee. He showed the heart of a champion, however, by bouncing back to land a big quad toe loop/ triple toe loop combination jump, then proceeded to smoothly work his way through the rest of his program.
The young star, who won the Junior Grand Prix Final in December 2023, landed seven clean triples in the triumph and earned level fours on two of his three spins in the courageous performance.
"I practiced up until now for this, to get gold here," Nakata was quoted as saying. "There are many people around here so I am not showing my emotions too much since it won't be nice. I will get very happy once I'm back to the hotel."
Nakata admitted the miscue at the outset had him rattled.
"When I made a mistake at the beginning, I felt very stressed but after that I calmed down," Nakata commented. "I was able to hang onto it until the end, and I think the biggest thing I got from this competition, well, I failed my first toe loop, but I think the second one was the best one."
Added Nakata, "At first, I thought it was going to go bad. When I had the step out. After that, I wasn't sure if I could do the axel but I decided to trust my training up until now, to not let it all go to waste."
Continue reading the full story on SportsLook.
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Author: Jack Gallagher
The author is a veteran sports journalist and one of the world's foremost figure skating experts. Find articles and podcasts by Jack on his author page, and find him on X (formerly Twitter) @sportsjapan.
