Jason Brown (USA) skates to gold in Junior Men's

Jason Brown of the USA skated to gold in the Junior Men's event ahead of China's Han Yan and teammate Joshua Farris.

Brown's program to “Flow Like Water” by James Newton Howard included seven triple jumps and fast, well centered spins. The 16-year-old improved his seasons best by 10.61 points with 139.64 points and was ranked second in the Free Skating. Overall he scored 208.41 points to win the gold in his first Junior Grand Prix Final. “I felt the crowd was amazing. I felt a lot of support. I tried my hardest in the moment. We changed around a couple of element since the last (Junior) Grand Prix and we moved a bunch of things to the second half. The rearrangement of the program worked better”, Brown said.

Yan nailed a triple Axel, a quad toe and six triples in his program set to “Zigeunerweisen”. He received 141.70 points which added up to a total of 205.93. The 15-year-old moved up one spot to earn his second consecutive silver medal in the Junior Final. “It wasn't my best today, because I am still affected by the cold. I have been sick for a month now. Coming here, I wanted to give my best in spite of the illness, considering the circumstances I did okay”, Yan told the press.

Overnight leader Farris started strong into this new program to Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 with a triple Axel and a triple toe-triple toe but later missed the second triple Axel and fell in the footwork. The 16-year-old earned 130.99 points and had 203.98 points overall to claim his first medal in his second appearance in the Junior Final. “I’m happy because I am a little more calm than what I had been in the past which is good. After that fall on the footwork it kind of hurt a little bit and I had to get my legs out from underneath me and I just couldn’t quite do it soon enough. I am very disappointed.”

Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy (GER) seize Pairs gold

In what was a high level Pairs event, Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkwoy of Germany seized the Pairs gold, edging out Russia's Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov by just 0.18 points. Russia's Yuko Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov moved up from fourth to claim the bronze medal.

Savchenko/Szolkowy delivered a strong perfomance to “Pina” that featured a throw triple flip, triple toe-triple toe combination, triple twist and difficult lifts and spins. They earned a seasons best with 142.44 points for the Free Skating and overtook Volosozhar/Trankov with a total score of 212.26 points. “My legs were heavy today, it was hard. It was very close, but this gives us motivation to work even harder. It is exciting if the competition is so close”, Savchenko commented.

Overnight leaders Volosozhar/Trankov hit a triple twist, triple Salchow, triple toe-double toe and three level-four lifts in their dramatic program to “Black Swan”. The Russians improved their seasons best by almost ten  points with 140.51 and totaled 212.08 points. “We are happy that we were able to skate well even though we skated last again. We are getting used to it. It was very close but that makes it interesting. We still have to work on the second half of our program. Maxim had an injury and we couldn't prepare a 100 percent”, Volosozhar said.

Kavaguti/Smirnov opened their program to “Clair de Lune” with a solid triple toe and followed up with a triple twist and throw triple Salchow, but she singled the second jump in the double Axel-double Axel sequence. The couple from St. Petersburg picked up 126.40 points and collected 187.77 points overall. “We are pleased with our skate today, there were only little errors. Today I didn't skate for a placement, I only skated for Yuko, for myself and for the audience. Judging by the applause we got I think we were able to transmit the emotion of our program pretty well”, Smirnov shared.

Dan Zhang/Hao Zhang (CHN) dropped from third to fourth at 182.54 points. Meagan Duhamel/Eric Radford (CAN) placed fifth (170.43 points) and Narumi Takahashi/Mervin Tran (JPN) finished 164.42 points.

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final concludes Sunday with the Free Dance and the Exhibition Gala.