Kao Miura of Japan skated off with his second title at the ISU Figure Skating Four Continents Championships 2026 in Beijing Sunday, fending off a strong challenge from Korea’s Junhwan Cha. The men once more delivered an exciting competition until the very last moment.

Kao Miura (JPN) takes gold following 2023 triumph

Kao Miura (main picture) of Japan put up a courageous fight to take his second ISU Four Continents gold medal, edging Korea’s Junhwan Cha by just 0.11 points. The bronze went to Sota Yamamoto of Japan, which was the most successful nation at the ISU Four Continents Championships 2026, taking six medals including two gold.

Overnight leader Miura went for a quad loop right out of the gate in his performance to “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” but stumbled. He rallied back to hit a quad Salchow, quad toe-triple toe and triple Axel, but the solo quad toe was shaky. The 2023 ISU Four Continents champion was ranked fourth in the Free Skating, with a season’s best of 175.14 but held on to first place at 273.73 points overall. 

“Today I feel like I fought it through the first half of the performance,” Miura said. “I had mistakes but I was able to regain my confidence and skate it well the latter half. I found room for improvement because I had some major mistakes. That’s something I need to work on going into the Olympics.

“But thinking about how I started this season, my first free skate in this season, I got 104 points. So looking back on that, I feel like I fought through. I’ve trained and I persevered. There were some frustrating moments, but I gave it my all and I fought it until now.”

ISU Four Continents champion Kao Miura of Japan shows off his gold medal in Beijing, China © ISU

Sitting in sixth place following the Short Program, Cha had nothing to lose. The 24-year-old, who has won the past 10 Korean national titles and who struggled with boot problems earlier this season, put out an excellent performance of his expressive Tango program “Balada para un Loco” that he had brought back from the past season. Cha completed a quad Salchow and quad toe as well as six triples and strong spins and footwork to win the Free Skating segment with 184.73 points – a season’s best. Cha jumped on to the podium with a total of 273.62 points, earning his fourth ISU Four Continents medal including gold in 2022, silver in 2025 and 2026 and bronze in 2024. 

“I’m very happy about my performance today and actually I’m glad that I can skate here again because the last three months I was very unstable,” Cha said. “After my Nationals I could train properly for like two weeks. Yesterday and today I made mistakes but I was really happy that I can skate again here, I can train and enjoy the competition.”

Cha was happy about bringing back his Tango. “I wanted to know how it feels again when I skated “Balada para un Loco” again and it felt really, really good. Even though I made the mistake I had (singer) Milva’s voice leading me to skate. I was so into it and I was connected with the audience,” he explained. 

Junhwan Cha (KOR): back-to-back silver medalist at the ISU Four Continents Championships in Beijing, China © ISU

Yamamoto turned in a strong performance to “Hallelujah” that featured two quad toe loops and two triple Axels. The Japanese skater scored a season’s best of 175.39 points to take his first ISU championship medal at the senior level with 270.07 points overall.

“Receiving a medal in the championships has been my goal for the longest time,” Yamamoto said. “The fact that I got to medal today is pretty big for me in the senior events. As for today’s performance, the first quad Salchow turned into a triple Salchow. However, overall, I was able to remain calm and I wanted to show my presence in today’s skating. I think I was able to do exactly that. 

“The component score (83.49) was pretty good. I have been keeping in mind to achieve a higher component score and I was able to do that. I think my effort paid off. So I want to keep training hard and do well in the next season.”

Japan's bronze medalist Sota Yamamoto (right) shares the acclaim with his countryman Kao Miura in Beijing, China © ISU

Kazuki Tomono (JPN) slipped from second to fourth place at 268.60 points while 2025 ISU Four Continents champion Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) was second in the Free Skating and fifth overall (266.20 points). Boyang Jin (CHN), the 2018 ISU Four Continents champion, came sixth on 258.86 points. 

What and when 

For more information, full entry lists and results, visit the ISU event page of the ISU Figure Skating Four Continents Championships 2026. Find comments of the skaters and the press conference highlights on the ISU event website in the “For Media” section. For more information also see the Facts & Figures.

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