▲ Figure skater Lee Jae-keun
Promising men's singles figure skater Lee Jae-keun (Korea University) has taken the lead in the short program of the International Skating Union (ISU) Junior Grand Prix 6th event for the 2026–2027 season, breaking his personal best score.
Competing in the men's singles short program held today (local time) at Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Lee delivered a clean routine to score a total of 85.13 points—comprising 48.41 points for technical elements (TES) and 36.72 points for program components (PCS). He edged out Taiga Nishino of Japan (84.29 points) by 0.84 points to claim first place.
Lee's short program score surpassed his previous ISU-certified personal best of 83.20 points, set at the 2nd Junior Grand Prix event in August where he won the silver medal, by 1.09 points.
Lee delivered a flawless performance, earning positive grade of execution (GOE) scores across all seven required short program elements.
Starting with his opening jumping element, the triple lutz (5.90 base value), Lee picked up 1.77 points in GOE. He then earned 1.71 points on his following triple axel (8.00 base value) and executed a flying camel spin at the maximum difficulty level of 4.
Lee also received 1.05 points in GOE on his triple loop-triple toe loop combination jump (10.01 base value) attempted in the bonus section, successfully completing all of his jumping elements.
After receiving a level 4 for his change foot combination spin, Lee wrapped up his routine with level 4s on both his step sequence and change foot sit spin.
Earlier, competing in the women's singles short program, Chang Ha-rin (Dojang Middle School) scored 64.77 points—consisting of 38.14 points in TES and 26.63 points in PCS—placing third behind Liu Yu-shiang of China (70.10 points) and Hannah Bath of Australia (67.75 points).
Chang's short program score marked a new personal best, raising her previous ISU-certified record of 56.01 points by a substantial 8.76 points.
Earning 0.84 points in GOE on her opening triple toe loop-triple toe loop combination jump (8.40 base value), Chang also picked up 0.42 points in GOE on the following double axel (3.30 base value).
Following a level 3 flying camel spin, Chang cleanly landed a triple lutz (6.69 base value) in the bonus section to collect 1.43 points in GOE.
Chang concluded her performance with a level 3 step sequence, followed by a level 4 change foot combination spin and a level 4 layback spin.
(Photo: Captured from ISU SNS, Yonhap News)
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