The Men's event finished with the final Free Skating. First to skate of the top contenders was overnight leader Andrei Griazev of Russia.

The 18-year-old from St. Petersburg hit a huge triple Axel-triple toeloop combination right away in his program to a selection of Fellini soundtracks and pumped his fist. Another big triple Axel followed, but then Griazev doubled his Lutz and stepped out of a triple flip. He recovered to hit a triple Salchow-triple toeloop combination, a triple loop and a solid double Axel. His spins featured good positions and he put a lot of energy in his straight line footwork towards the end of the program.

The marks ranged from 5.4 to 5.7 for technical merit and from 5.6 to 5.8 for presentation.

Jordan Brauninger
Jordan Brauninger (USA) was next and opened his program to “Patton” with a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination and a triple flip-triple toeloop combination. The American put down his hand on his triple Axel, but he landed three more triples and his combination spin was very well centred and fast.

The 17-year-old scored marks up to 5.6 for both technical merit and presentation which put him in second place at this time.

Evan Lysacek
His teammate Evan Lysacek followed right after him. Skating to Sergei Rakhmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, the two-time World Junior silver medalist produced a triple Axel-double toeloop combination, then he did a three turn out of his second Axel and added another double toeloop. The Four Continents bronze medalist continued with a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination and three more triples, but he stepped out of a double toe that he did in combination with a triple flip. That meant he had done four combinations, which is not allowed.

Lysacek's marks ranged from 5.3 to 5.7 for technical merit and from 5.4 to 5.8 for presentation, and he lost on a three to six split on the panel to Griazev, winning his third silver medal at Junior Worlds.

Title
Griazev took the title, his first medal at Junior Worlds after a 14 th place in 2002, the only time he competed at Junior Worlds before.
Brauninger captured the bronze medal in what was his first time at Junior Worlds.

Alban Preaubert
Last year's bronze medalist Alban Preaubert of France, who stood in third place following the Short Program, missed a triple Axel and also fell on a double Axel to slip to fourth overall.

Griazev: "It was tough, but almost everything worked well"
“It was a very important competition for me, I felt a lot of responsibility”, Griazev told the post event news conference. “It was tough, but almost everything worked well. I feel a bit tired now, but to have won the gold medal is a dream come true.”

Lysacek obviously was disappointed. “It was hard for me to get through this week”, he said. “I've had a great season, all the competitions so far have been going really well. I had a lot of confidence coming in (here), but I was tired from all my travels this year. Tonight I just tried my hardest. Second again – I'll take it. Maybe I just wasn't meant to win this competition.” For Lysacek, it was the last year in Juniors.

Brauninger commented: “I'm just really happy to be here. It's my first time (to compete at Junior Worlds). A place in the top five was a goal, to be in the top three is like he (Griazev) says really a dream come true. I hope to be back next year and do better. I skated pretty much as well as I could skate.”

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