#WorldJFigure

Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) claimed their second consecutive ISU World Junior crown as the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2025 wrapped up in Debrecen (HUN) Saturday with the Pairs Free Skating.

Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava (GEO) win the Free Skate in the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary © ISU

Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO) take back to back gold

Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava of Georgia celebrated a confident victory with more than 25 points to spare to repeat as ISU World Junior Champions. Ukraine’s Sofiia Holichenko/Artem Darenskiy earned the silver medal while Canadians Martina Ariano Kent/Charly Laliberte Laurent captured the bronze medal. 

Metelkina/Berulava confirmed their role as the top favorites with a solid performance to “A Necessary End”, reeling off a triple twist, side by side triple toe and triple throws. 

The 2025 ISU European bronze medalists scored 121.83 points in the Free Skating which added up to 191.01 points overall. Berulava now is a three-time World Junior Pairs Champion as he won his first gold in 2022 with his previous partner Karina Safina. 

“We are very happy to have defended our title,” Berulava said. “Unfortunately, our performance was not ideal. Hopefully this was a good preparation for the World Championships and we will work to fix the errors we made,” he added.

“We skated better than when we won the first time,” Metelkina commented. “We felt calmer and more confident. Competing here was a valuable experience for us before the World Championships.”

Performing to “Cosmic Love”, Holichenko/Darenskiy produced triple throws and difficult lifts. They even went for a rare side by side triple flip as a solo jump, but it was under-rotated. 

Sofia Holichenko and Artem Darenskiy (UKR) in the Free Skate in the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary © ISU

The couple from Dnipro earned 106.66 points and totaled 164.06 points. They continued the tradition of Ukrainian Pairs that have won now nine medals at the ISU World Junior Championships. 

“I want to thank the organizers for a perfect World Junior Championships,” Darenskiy noted. “As for our performance, there were some little mistakes, but it was not bad.”

Like the Georgians, the Ukrainians are headed next to the ISU World Championships in Boston (USA). 

“We need to qualify a spot for the Olympic Games and we need to do a clean short and clean long,” Darenskiy said. 

Ariano Kent/Laliberte Laurent stood in fourth place following the Short Program but pulled up with a solid performance to “Radioactive” and “Finally Free” that featured a double Axel-double Axel sequence and level-four lifts. 

Martina Ariano Kent/Charly Laliberte Laurent (CAN) in the Free Skate in the ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Debrecen, Hungary © ISU

“We had a lot of different problems during the year, so to do a long and a short like we did today was very good,” Laliberte Laurent noted. “I felt really proud that we were able to stay calm and just focus and enjoy the moment,“ Ariano Kent added.

The couple had missed the ISU Junior Grand Prix circuit this season as Laliberte Laurent recovered from injury. 

“I had surgery on my right shoulder and I started skating five months ago, so it's been only three months of skating and a month of competitions. Just to be here today at Junior Worlds is an incredible reward,” he explained. 

Oxana Vouillamoz/Tom Bouvart (SUI) moved up from sixth to fourth place for the best result of a Swiss Junior Pairs team in the event (153.25 points). ISU Junior Grand Prix Final Champions Jiaxuan Zhang/Yihang Huang (CHN) dropped from third to fifth after making some errors (151.41 points). The 2024 ISU World Junior silver medalists Olivia Flores/Luke Wang (USA) moved up from eighth to sixth on 148.40 points.