TALLINN, ESTONIA (March 6, 2026) —David Bondar (Richmond Hill, Ont.) finished among the top 15 junior men’s skaters at this year’s ISU Figure Skating World Championship in Tallinn, Estonia on Friday.

The 2025 junior national champion joined Team Canada in Estonia after teammate Grayson Long was forced to withdraw due to injury in the week leading up to the competition. He scored 132.97 points for his free program, earning 202.06 points overall and finishing in 14th place. 

“I feel like it went pretty well considering how much training time I’ve had,” Bondar said. “I feel like I was a little bit sloppy at the end of that free program, but I managed to stand up on everything, so I’m proud of that.”

With this result, Bondar has set not only a new personal best in the free program, but also a new personal best total score. 

Japan’s Rio Nakata (268.47) was crowned the new junior men’s world champion, with Korea’s Minkyu Seo (243.91) and Japan’s Taiga Nishino (241.23) taking silver and bronze, respectively.

In junior ice dance, national junior ice dance champions Layla Veillon and Alexander Brandys (both of London, Ont.) currently sit in fourth place following the rhythm dance segment, after they scored 63.81 points for their program.

“We’ve been really working hard the past few weeks, especially even since Nationals and even more so since Germany, just pushing it out and giving everyone a show,” said Veillon. “I think we did exactly that today. We did what we’ve been doing in training. No matter what, we’re proud of what we put out.”

Teammates Summer Homick (Tillsonburg, Ont.) and Nicholas Buelow (Barrie, Ont.) find themselves in 16th place with 49.38 points after their rhythm dance. While not quite the result the pair was hoping for, they’re heading into Saturday’s free skate with their heads held high.

“I thought we did very well,” said Homick after their skate. “I thought our energy was very good. We’ve faced a lot of adversity in the last couple of weeks and I’m proud of how we’ve come out here today.” 

“It felt like a good skate,” added Buelow. “Technically it wasn’t, and that’s ok. We’ve got some years left and we’ll work on it for next year.”

Team USA’s Hana Maria Aboian and Daniil Veselukhin (66.45) sit in first place. France’s Ambre Perrier Gianesini and Samuel Blanc Klaperman (66.31) are close behind in second, with Ukraine’s Iryna Pidgaina and Artem Koval (65.45) trailing in third.

Both Canadian teams will compete in the free dance on Saturday, with Veillon and Brandys looking to pull ahead and potentially secure a podium finish—a first for Canada since 2023, in Calgary, where Nadiia Bashynska and Peter Beaumont took bronze.

For the complete results, please click here.