LONDON, Ont. -- Patrick Chan is golden once again.
The 22-year-old from Toronto won his third consecutive world figure skating title, becoming the first men's singles skater in 13 years to win three straight.
But victory No. 3 was far from an easy one for Chan on a night few skaters in the men's field performed well.
Denis Ten of Kazakhstan won the silver, while Javier Fernandez of Spain claimed the bronze.
Kevin Reynolds of Coquitlam, B.C., finished fifth.
Indicative of his topsy-turvy season, Chan was fortunate to have taken a huge seven-point lead into the free program, because Friday's skate to "La Boheme" was full of errors including a couple of falls and downgraded jumps.
Chan, whose short program Wednesday was a world record, opened with two huge quads and looked headed for certain victory before an uncharacteristic fall on a triple Lutz, then another splat on his triple Axel -- the jump that's always been his nemesis -- en route to 267.78 points.
"I'm sorry I didn't give you a good program," Chan told the audience after. "I wanted to do it so badly. It is a two-program competition and I am thankful for the beautiful short program I did on Wednesday.
"Maybe I'm saving it for Sochi."
The 19-year-old Ten, who scored 266.48, had the best free skate of the night and finished with 266.48 overall, delighting the crowd when he crouched on all fours and kissed the Budweiser Gardens ice afterward.
There was obvious disappointment on Reynolds' face when the 22-year-old heard his scores. Reynolds, who sat third after the short program, landed two quads, one with a shaky landed, but downgraded a couple of other jumps.
Earlier in the day, Meagan Duhamel of Lively, Ont., and Eric Radford of Balmertown, Ont., won bronze in the pairs, Canada's first in that discipline in five years.
Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto narrowly missed claiming a medal, finishing fourth.
The Canadian team, which has never won a medal in all four disciplines at a world championships, will have a couple of potential podium finishes Saturday with ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and teenager Kaetlyn Osmond in women's singles.
