SAITAMA, Japan, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Japanese skater Yuzuru Hanyu won the men's event of the International Skating Union's (ISU) World Figure Skating Championships here on Friday.
Hanyu, with a fantastic free skating, surpassed his compatriot Tatsuki Machida who ranked the first after short program and gained 282.59 points totally, becoming a new world title skater as three-time winner of the championships Canadian Patrick Chen did not compete this time.
The young skater said that he felt so glad, calling the result between Machida and him "was very close."
"I hope that I can become a skater who can always end with strong performances," said Hanyu.
Machida, who also did great in the free skating, ranked the second with a total score of 282.26 points and was followed by Spanish skater Javier Fernandez, who got 275.93 points.
He said he already showed everything he has at free skating and he spend about two years on the performance called "firebird," adding during the free skating, he was bothered by thoughts that he ranked the first in the short program.
"I have no regrets about my performance today," said Machida.
The bronze medalist Fernandez said he felt good and it was a good program. "I popped the triple Lutz and didn't do my quad Salchow triple toeloop combination, but still it was a good program."
"I'm going to celebrate with my family, when I got back to Spain," he said.
Russian player Maxim Kovtun and U.S. skater Jeremy Abbott ranked the fourth and the fifth with 247.37 and 246.35 points respectively.