The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2012 continued Thursday in Minsk, Belarus, on with the Men's Short Program and the Pairs Free Skating.

Joshua Farris (USA) grabs Junior Men's Short Program

Joshua Farris (USA) grabbed the lead in the Junior Men's Short Program, but China's Han Yan in second and Denis Ten of Kazakhstan in third place are not far behind.

Skating to Clair de Lune, Farris nailed a triple Axel, a triple flip-triple toe, the required triple Lutz and picked up a level four for his three spins. The 17-year-old scored 75.43 points. I felt really good about the performance. I think a couple of things could have been better, but overall this was probably my best all year and I couldn't ask for more.

Yan's routine to Waltz No.2 by Dmitri Shostakovitch featured a triple Axel, triple flip-triple toe combination, triple Lutz and a level-four flying sit spin. The ISU Junior Grand Prix Final silver medalist posted a new seasons best of 74.88 points. I performed up to my level today and I'm happy with that. The spins could have been a bit better, though. Overall I think the level of the competition is higher than last year, the 15-year-old pointed out.

Ten opened his program to Rachmaninov's Elegie op. 3 with a triple Axel, followed by a triple flip-triple toe and a triple Lutz. But the flying sit was wobbly and the combination spin was graded a level one. The skater from Kazakhstan scored 73.78 points. I am not too happy with my performance, the spins didn't work out so well. I hope to do better in the free skating, Ten commented. I want to skate well and in Kazakhstan we didn't have yet a medalist, so it would be nice to win a medal and to do something for the history of Kazakhstan figure skating, he added.

Jason Brown (USA) came fourth at 70.20 points. He turned in a clean performance as well with a double Axel, triple flip-triple toe and triple Lutz. Zhan Bush (RUS) finished fifth after stepping out on his triple Axel (65.21 points) and He Zhang (CHN) placed sixth (64.63 points).

Wenjing Sui/Cong Han (CHN) strike gold
Wenjing Sui/Cong Han of China struck gold for the third time at the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships. Teammates Xiaoyu Yu/Yang Jin claimed the silver and Russia's Vasilisa Davankova/ Andrei Deputat earned the bronze.

Sui/Han put out a strong performance to The Soul of Flamenco that included a quadruple twist and a quadruple throw Salchow (two-footed), a double Axel, throw triple flip and difficult lifts, but he stumbled on the triple toe-double toe combination. The reigning Four Continents Champions scored 116.40 points and took their third consecutive title with 175.69 points. Today we did well, but we didn't do our best, I was a little nervous. I think Belarus is our lucky place because we were able to win Junior Worlds here for the third time, Han said.

Skating to Requiem for a Dream, Yu/Yang completed a triple twist, double Axel-double Axel sequence, triple toe and throw triple loop and Salchow. The couple from Harbin picked up a new seasons best with 112.76 points and totaled 167.48 points. Today we are very happy with our performance because we did our very best. But still we hope to do even better next year, Jin commented.

Davankova/Deputat turned in a strong program to Romeo and Juliet, reeling off a triple toe-doube toe, triple twist, throw triple loop and throw triple flip and level-four spins and death spiral. The Russian Junior Champions earned 103.16 points to move up from fifth to third at 153.66 points in their first international competition. We are very pleased to have come third in our debut. We skated very well and we hope to move up next year, Davankova commented.

Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier (USA) finished fourth with a clean program that featured a triple twist, double Axel and two triple throw jumps (150.55 points). Margaret Purdy/Michael Marinaro moved up from seventh to fifth at 141.76 points. Ekaterina Petaikina/Maxim Kurdyukov (RUS) slipped from third to sixth after two errors on the throw jumps (141.19 points).

The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships continue Friday with the Ladies' Short Program and the Free Dance. For more information and full results please see: www.isu.org.