Cha Jun-hwan of Korea performs during the Men's Free Program of the ISU Figure Skating World Championships in Boston, Mass., U.S., EPA-Yonhap

Korean figure skater Cha Jun-hwan has finished off the podium at the world championships in the United States, unable to add to the silver medal he'd captured two years ago.

Cha had 265.74 points overall to finish seventh at the International Skating Union (ISU) World Figure Skating Championships at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday (local time). Cha, the 2023 world silver medalist, scored 179.33 points in a clean free skate Saturday, the fifth best among 24 skaters, but he still couldn't overcome a shaky short program from two days earlier, when he had 86.41 points to rank only 10th.

Ilia Malinin of the United States won his second straight world title with 318.56 points overall, and Mikhail Shaidorov of Kazakhstan finished a distant runner-up with 287.47 points. Yuma Kagiyama of Japan took the bronze with 278.19 points.

By finishing in the top 10 as the only Korean in the free skate, Cha secured one quota place for Korea for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy and also an extra entry for the Olympic qualifying competition in September.

Cha, 23, remains the only Korean male figure skater to have won a world championship medal. (Yonhap)