Finlandia Trophy 2024: Kagiyama Yuma puts himself on track for back-to-back wins with dominant short program
The NHK Trophy winner took a 13.19-point lead in the men's short program, ahead of Japanese teammate Tomono Kazuki and France's Kevin Aymoz.
Figure Skating
Less than a week after clinching men's singles victory at the NHK Trophy, Kagiyama Yuma delivered another stellar performance to take the lead after the short program at the 2024 Finlandia Trophy on Friday, 15 November.
The Japanese figure skater took a 13.19-point lead over runner-up, teammate Tomono Kazuki, as he became the only man to punch above 100 points in Helsinki.
Skating to the 1960s classic "The Sound of Silence", Kagiyama swept ahead of the field as he cleanly landed his jumps, starting with an impressive quadruple Salchow, followed by a quad toeloop-triple toeloop combination and wrapping up with a triple Axel.
The 103.97 points he scored for the effort was just short of the 105.70 he scored a week ago, but it still put him far ahead of the rest of the figure skaters.
Given the short turnaround, it was an admirable effort. "I was a little worried about my tiredness because it was such a short time since the NHK Trophy," Kagiyama said through an intrerpreter at a press conference afterwards.
"I had only two days to practise between these two competitions but I tried to do what I could and focus on the things I missed, sleep and eat as well as I could, to be 100 percent here."
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Tomono was Kagiyama's closest challenger, saving a quadruple Salchow to put himself second with 90.78 points. Tomono was also in medal contention after the short program at the Grand Prix de France two weeks earlier, but dropped down to fifth after the free skate, and is hoping to bounce back from that in Finland.
"This morning my condition was very good but in the six-minute warm up I was a little nervous," Tomono admitted. "I think I managed to do a very good performance and I'll try to do better in the free skate."
The Finlandia Trophy also saw the return of Kevin Aymoz after his second-place finish at Skate America. The French skater, who is making a comeback this fall after ending his 2023-24 season early, got another confidence-boosting result in the books as he finished third in the short program.
While Aymoz fell on the last Lutz of the program - and also popped it down to a single, invalidating the entire element - his solid quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop and triple Axel put him into podium position with 85.13 points.
Grand Prix Final qualification in the balance for skaters
The 2024 Finlandia Trophy serves as the fifth stop of six ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating competitions for the 2024/25 season, with qualification points available for skaters hoping to make December’s Grand Prix Final in Grenoble, France.
And that is clearly weighing on the minds of many skaters, including Aymoz and two other men who finished on the podium at their first Grand Prix assignments of the season but were sixth and seventh respectively on Friday after unfortunate errors: Daniel Grassl of Italy, who was second to Kagiyama at NHK Trophy last week but fell on his combination in Helsinki and could not complete it; and Cha Junhwan, the Republic of Korea skater who finished third at Skate Canada International but fell on his opening quad Salchow and under-rotated a triple loop on Friday.
In the mixed zone immediately after his skate, a reflective Cha said of his 77.33, which will see him skate in the opening group for the free skate: "I think I tried my best. It wasn't good today. I really love this program, but those mistakes… that's what I have to keep working on, make it cleaner and make better quality."
For his part, Aymoz said the fact that the Grand Prix Final is set for Grenoble - his hometown - is propelling him to these unexpected heights this year.
"Honestly, this season the Final was not the goal for me, after my breakdown last season I was taking this pre-Olympic season as slow and cool as I can, [until] I found out the Final is in my hometown in Grenoble – the rink is where I took my first step ever on the ice. So it's something huge and I really want to participate in this event."
That means a "stressful" free skate awaits tomorrow in his own words, "because we're playing for a Final spot.
"Tomorrow I just want to fight because Skate America was such a good event for me – I went relaxed and without stress, so I'm going to try to do the same and leave no crumbs for anyone, take every point I can and enjoy skating again."
Finlandia Trophy 2024 men's short program results
- Kagiyama Yuma (JPN) 103.97
- Tomono Kazuki (JPN) 90.78
- Kevin Aymoz (FRA) 85.13
- Yamamoto Sota (JPN) 82.43
- Lukas Britschgi (SUI) 80.44
- Daniel Grassl (ITA) 77.91
- Cha Junhwan (KOR) 77.33
- Aleksandr Selevko (EST) 66.36
- Vladimir Samoilov (POL) 65.46
- Camden Pulkinen (USA) 64.34
- Makar Suntsev (FIN) 59.58
- Valtter Virtanen (FIN) 57.28