Honda, the 14-year-old making her debut at the event, produced a flawless free skate to Beetlejuice, reeling off a triple Lutz, triple Salchow-triple toeloop combination as well as four more triples and two level four spins.

It secured a personal best haul of 126.87 points at the Főnix Arena, meaning a winning total of 192.98 once the short and free programmes were combined.

This proved enough to defeat Lillehammer 2016 Youth Olympic silver medallist Maria Sotskova of Russia, who slipped from the lead despite a 188.72 personal best.

It ended Russia's impressive streak of winning every ladies World Junior gold since 2011.

Wakaba Higuchi of Japan scored 183.73 for a second successive World Junior bronze.

“Before the competition, I was aiming at the podium," said a delighted Honda afterwards.

"After the short programme I felt stronger about making the podium."

McNamara and Carpenter won a thrilling duel with their US team-mates, the brother and sister combination Rachel and Michael Parsons.

Dancing to Carmen, they combined smooth footwork and impressive lifts to score 97.40 in a total haul of 163.65.

The Parsons siblings had to settle for silver after a total score of 162.74 while Alla Loboda and Pavel Drozd of Russia scored 151.19 for bronze.

“For us, we’re obviously very happy to have won the gold," said McNamara.

"It wasn’t our main focus.

"We were focusing on skating the best that we possibly could and we are very happy that it got us where we are, but we’re very happy that we skated the programme we did and accomplished what we set out to."

Competition will officially conclude in the Hungarian city tomorrow with an Exhibition Gala.