Former Burnaby resident Nam Nguyen posted personal best scores to finish in fifth place at the International Skating Union World Figure Skating Championships this weekend.
The gifted 16-year-old landed his quadruple jump and recorded the fourth-best free skating program at the worlds, leaping up from ninth place after the opening short program to finish fifth in the men’s final in Shanghai, China on Saturday.
Nguyen finished with a personal-best 242.59 score following a 164.86 PB score in the long program.
Javier Fernandez of Spain won his country’s first-ever men’s gold medal in figure skating, overtaking defending world and Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan in the free skate.
Both Fernandez and Hanyu share the same Canadian coach as Nguyen – two-time Olympic silver medalist Brian Orser.
“In the long program, I needed to be more aggressive. I achieved that, and I’m really happy with myself,” said Nguyen in a Skate Canada press release.
Nguyen won four national figure skating titles before the age of 13. He is the youngest Canadian athlete to date to be crowned a national champion in all five divisions he has competed in, including national juvenile champion at eight years of age.
After winning the juvenile title, Nguyen achieved a rarely seen triple, winning three national gold medals in a row, taking top spot the following year in men’s pre-novice and the novice title in 2009.
Nguyen also became the youngest-ever junior men’s champion at age 12 in 2011 and recently became the youngest senior men’s champion this year at 16 following a phenomenal free skate, including a perfect quad Salchow and eight triple jumps to score 256.88 overall points that vaulted him into the world’s elite skaters.
Nguyen left the Lower Mainland for Toronto in 2012 to train with Orser.
Nguyen won the world junior men’s championship last year.
Burnaby’s Jeremy Ten placed 22nd overall in the men’s free skate program.
