Wakaba Higuchi earned the bronze medal at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships on Friday night in Tallinn, Estonia.

Higuchi's total score of 185.57 points after the free skate put her on the podium along with gold medalist Evgenia Medvedeva (192.97) and silver medalist Serafima Sakhanovich (186.15) of Russia.

Higuchi was in third place following Wednesday's short program and retained her position with a sublime free skate.

The 14-year-old Tokyo native, who is Japan's reigning national junior champion, skated to Gershwin's "Piano Concerto in F" and landed seven triple jumps.

Higuchi also received level-fours on three spins and earned a technical score that was four points better than any other competitor in the free skate. She finished second in the free skate with a personal best of 124.30.

"In this competition I did quite well from the beginning to the end. I was nervous, but under this pressure I did what I had to do," Higuchi was quoted as saying after the competition by the ISU website.

Higuchi, who finished an impressive third at her first senior nationals in Nagano in December, was the bronze medalist at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain, earlier the same month.

Kaori Sakamoto, a 15-year-old from Kobe, finished sixth with 166.25, while Yuka Nagai, a 16-year-old from Tokyo, came in seventh on 163.93.

Shoma Uno holds a commanding lead of more than eight points in the men's competition following Friday's short program. Uno tallied 84.87 to set the pace ahead of Russia's Adian Pitkeev (76.94) and Alexander Petrov (75.28).

Uno, who won the gold medal at the JGP Final, competed to Beethoven's "Violin Sonata No. 9" and hit a triple axel, triple lutz and triple flip/triple toe loop combination while earning level-fours for his three spins and step sequence.

"I think I achieved one of my best performances in the short program and I hope to do the same tomorrow in the free skating," said the 17-year-old from Nagoya.

Sota Yamamoto, a 14-year-old from Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture, is in seventh place at 69.99 heading into Saturday's free skate.