Shoma Uno retained his lead after the short program to win the gold medal at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, on Saturday night.

Uno, a 17-year-old from Nagoya, became Japan's first male world junior champion since Yuzuru Hanyu in 2010.

Uno, who took an eight-point lead into the free skate, landed six triple jumps and earned level-fours for two of his spins and step sequence on the way to victory with a total score of 232.54 points.

China's Jin Boyang took the silver with 229.70, moving up from fifth place after the short program.

Sota Yamamoto vaulted from seventh place to claim the bronze on 215.45.

Skating to "Don Juan de Marco," Uno missed his planned opening quadruple toe loop, but persevered to claim the title.

"In this championship I felt more nervous in the short and free program than in any other competition," Uno was quoted as saying by the ISU website. "In juniors, the expression is less strong than at the senior level. I think I need to work most on the artistic side. It is also important to get more consistency in my jumps."

Uno, who also won the gold at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, Spain, in December, was second at Japan's senior national championships later the same month.

His latest victory gives him five titles for the season. He has also won the Japan junior crown, the JGP in Croatia and the Asian Trophy.

Jin made a big run at Uno in the free skate, hitting two quads and touching down on another while executing seven triple jumps. His technical score of 90.81 was 11 points more than Yamamoto, who had the second-highest marks in that category.

The 17-year-old from Harbin competed to "Dragon Racing" and displayed his great potential.

"This is my third junior worlds but I got a medal for the first time," commented Jin. "It was a quite good performance. The second quad wasn't so good, and I couldn't do the combination as planned but then I was able to do it later. All the other things were quite good."

Yamamoto, a 14-year-old from Kishiwada, Osaka Prefecture, rocketed from seventh to make the podium with six triple jumps in his free skate to "Lorelei." His score in the free skate of 145.46 was a personal best.

"I was so nervous in the short program and after that I tried not to be so nervous and not so stiff," Yamamoto stated. "As a result, I had this (good) performance."

Yamamoto took the silver behind Uno at the JGP Final.

Hiroaki Sato, Japan's third skater, finished 15th with 176.66.

Wakaba Higuchi claimed Japan's first medal of the event when she took the bronze medal in the women's competition on Friday night.