Seo Min-kyu wins first gold in men’s singles at ISU Junior Grand Prix

South Korea's Seo Min-kyu (15) won his first gold medal since his debut in the Junior Grand Prix debut with a flawlessly clean performance. The South Korean skater won the highest scores in the men's short program and free skate with personal bests in both events to win the medal at the third edition of the 2023-2024 International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix, which concluded in Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday. It is the first time in seven years that a South Korean skater won the men's singles title at an ISU Junior Grand Prix since Cha Jun-hwan won the seventh edition of the Grand Prix in the 2016-2017 season.

Seo Min-kyu, who made his Junior Grand Prix debut last season and won bronze at the sixth edition of the event, has earned his first gold medal at an ISU major event with Saturday’s win. After scoring 75.67 points by staging a clean performance in the short program the previous day to finish second overall behind Japan's Daiya Ebihara (76.10 points), Seo took first place in the free skate with a clean performance (155.63 points) on the day.


Bo-Mi Im bom@donga.com