The 17-year-old's victory was special considering she was in sixth position after the short programme the day before.

Performing to "The Phantom of the Opera", Lee made seven triple jumps, achieving a personal best of 141.71 and 210.84 overall to take the gold medal.

She also became the first South Korean woman to win the Four Continents since Yuna Kim in 2009.

"I always try to do my best. Last year I got the silver medal at Four Continents," Lee said.

"But this year I tried not to focus on the final results and just on the training.

"And I think I did well, I made no mistakes and I’m so happy right now.

"I really didn’t expect the gold medal. I just wanted to medal."

Compatriot and Lake Placid 2023 Winter World University Games bronze medallist Yelim Kim could only manage second place despite being the overnight leader.

The bronze medal also involved a comeback with Japanese Mone Chiba impressing on her debut to finish on the podium from seventh place the day before.

Yelim performed to "Summer of 42", bagging 136.45 points in the free skate and 209.29 points overall.

With six clean triples and three level four spins, Mone, skating to "The Butterfly Lovers" got a personal best of 137.70 points and an overall score of 204.98 for the final place in the podium.

Chaeyeon Kim of South Korea finished fourth with 202.39 points while Rinka Watanabe of Japan completed the top five, scoring 200.50 points.

For the hosts, world junior champion Isabeau Levito, tipped for success at this tournament, withdrew right before warm-up.

Levito was second after the short programme.

The ISU Four Continents is set to continue tomorrow with the pairs and men's free skating tomorrow.