Shun SATO (JPN) | Men Free Skating | ISU World Championships | Boston 2025 | #FigureSkating

So, two skaters from Japan in the final group. First one up, lying in fifth place. He's got a draw on the atmosphere, focus, keep control. This is 21-year-old Shun Sato. Quad Lutz. And there's the Quad Flip. Quad Toe. Triple Toe. What a start to this free program. Well, that's quad number four, but he couldn't maintain control. Quad Toe. And that's huge. Triple Axel, Euler. Triple Salchow. And there's the Axel, with a Double Axel on the end. And a Triple Loop. Just phenomenal. Well, he kept his composure, didn't he? He did draw on the crowd. He used that energy in a positive way, and it paid off in a huge way. Just amazing. Shun Sato, debuting at the World Championships with a performance like that. I can't believe it's his debut at the World Championships. That's what's most surprising to me. This was incredible. It is incredible. When you look back at his career so far, internationally in 2023, 2024, right up until this year, every single international event he's done, he's been on the podium. And at the end of the year, the World University Games finished him fifth. The Asian Winter Games, he was in fifth place there. But apart from that, he's always been on the podium, seventh in Japanese nationals. And he comes here, and he's in the final group at the World Championships. He's an amazing talent. When we spoke about it at the top of the event with Tetsuya Suboi, the depth is crazy in Japanese single skating. Here, taking a look at the quadruple lutz. And that is the reason why Shun hasn't been at Worlds yet. It's not because he's not capable. It's because there's so much talent in Japan. Here, the quadruple toe, triple toe. 15.87 points for that element. Here's the second quad toe. Really far forward. Can't hang on to it. And they are giving him a fall for that. I'm surprised. As soon as his hands went down. They've decided there's too much of a weight transfer onto his hands. And that a part of his choreo sequence. So for that quad toe error, he's losing about eight points. This was an incredible pre-program. Fantastic skating skills and great technical ability. Okay, so 184 he needs to go into the lead. 184.23. Oh, he's not going to do that. 179.30. Yeah, he's in second place.