The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2013 continued in Milan, Italy, Thursday with the Junior Men's Short Program and Junior Pairs Free Skating.

Joshua Farris (USA) leads U.S. sweep in Junior Men's Short Program
Joshua Farris led a sweep of the U.S. Men in the Junior Men's Short Program. Shotaro Omori finished second and Jason Brown came third. 37 Junior Men competed and 24 advance to the Free Skating on Saturday.

Farris hit a triple Axel, triple Lutz-triple toe and produced three level-four spins and level-four footwork in his program set to the Prelude from the Suite for Solo Cello No 1 in G Major by Yo-Yo Ma. However, the triple flip was shaky after he missed in the six-minute-warm up. The reigning World Junior silver medalist posted a seasons best of 75.84 points. Basically after the warm up my coach (Damon Allen) was like, rely on your training. I've done numerous clean short programs. I just let my muscle memory take over and that's kind of how I recovered from that warm up. I felt good about the skate, Farris said. Right now I'm planning on putting everything in there. I've been training clean programs with everything in there, he added.

Omori's Tango program featured a triple Axel, triple Lutz-triple toe and triple flip as well as two level-four spins. With a score of 70.82 points, he surpassed his previous seasons best by more than 12 points. I am very surprised that I am in top three. I feel very honored to be in the top three with my teammates. I think Josh and Jason are definitely skaters I look up to, the 17-year-old noted. I felt really good talking to my coach Tammy Gambill before the competition. She just wanted me to relax and really focus on what I had to do to complete each element. That went well, he continued.

Brown opened his routine to Question of U with a triple Axel but reduced his combination to triple Lutz-double toeloop before coming back with strong spins and a triple flip. The defending World Junior bronze medalist picked up as seasons best of 70.06 points. ) I felt good going into the Lutz and maybe I thought I was too close to the boards. After that happened I tried to move on and just look forward and try to make everything else as good as it could be. I was very excited about the opening and the Axel. That was definitely something that was a big relief and big burden off my chest to come here and land the triple Axel, the 18-year-old told the press. I think we have a really deep field in the U.S. right now. It's been really competitive just to make it on the Junior World team. To have an American sweep in the short is absolutely amazing. We hope we can stay this way for the long, Brown explained when asked about the success of the U.S. Junior Men.

Michael Christian Martinez (PHI) finished fourth at 67.01 points ahead of Alexander Samarin (RUS) with 63.07 points. Boyang Jin (CHN) rounds up the top six (62.82 points).

Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier take Junior Pairs gold medal
Haven Denney/Brandon Frazier (USA) skated off with the gold medal in the Junior Pairs event. Margaret Purdy/Michael Marinaro of Canada took the silver medal and Russia's Lina Fedorova/Maxim Miroshkin surged from seventh place to capture the bronze medal.

Performing to La Strada, Denney/Frazier reeled off a triple twist, throw triple Salchow, triple Salchow, double Axel-double Axel sequence, a throw triple loop and difficult lifts. The Americans scored 103.22 points, improving their seasons best by 20.47 points and pulled up from third to first at 155.83 points. I thought our performance was pretty good today. It felt like we fought through all our elements and I think that made us appreciate it even more. I had a lot of fun and was relieved when it was over. I don't think it has sunk in yet, but I'm really happy and proud of Brandon on myself tonight, Denney commented.

Purdy/Marinaro's routine to The Artist was highlighted by a triple toe-double toe combination, double Axel, throw triple Salchow and level-four lifts and spins. The Canadians set a new seasons best with 101.61 points and were ranked third in the Free Skating but remained in second place overall at 154.70 points. We are very happy with our performances that we had. We're pretty pleased with how it went. We're very proud of the season that we had and it is a good way to end off our junior career and ready to step into seniors next year, Marinaro noted.

Fedorova/Miroshkin opened their program to Hernando's Hideaway with a beautiful triple twist and followed up with a throw triple loop, double Axel, double flip-double toe combination. The Russian Junior Champions earned a level four for the lifts and the spins to score 105.14 points. The won the Free Skating portion and overall jumped on to the podium with 154.57 points. Obviously, after the short program we were a little upset, because not everything worked out, but before the free we didn't think about any results and didn't think about taking a gold, silver or bronze medal, but we just wanted to skate the best we can and execute all our elements, Fedorova explained.

Overnight leaders Xiaoyu Yu/Yang Jin (CHN) dropped to fourth at 151.47 points as she struggled with the side by side jumps. Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov (RUS) placed fifth (148.74 points) and Brittany Jones/Ian Beharry (CAN) finished sixth (147.97 points).

Due to a technical problem, the start of the Junior Pairs Free Skating was delayed by 1 hour 20 minutes.

The ISU World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2013 continue Friday with the Junior Ladies Short Program and Junior Free Dance. For more information, full entry lists and results please see: www.isu.org and http://www.jwcmilano2013.com/ .