HELSINKI — Japanese figure skater Yuma Kagiyama is positioning himself for consecutive victories in the Grand Prix series after emerging as the leader in the short program at the Finlandia Trophy on Friday.
Kagiyama performed to “The Sound of Silence” and made a strong start with a quadruple salchow followed by a combination of a quad toeloop and a triple toeloop, achieving a score of 103.97.

This score placed him in a significant lead, giving him a 13-point advantage as he prepares for Saturday’s free skate, though it was slightly under his previous short score achieved during his win at the NHK Trophy on home turf just the week before.
In second place was fellow Japanese competitor Kazuki Tomono, who earned 90.78 points after executing two quadruple jumps in the only other clean performance of the event. French skater Kevin Aymoz secured third place with a score of 85.13, even after he had to abandon a planned triple lutz.
In the women’s short program, Hana Yoshida from Japan managed to take a slender lead against a field lessened by the earlier withdrawals of world silver medalist Isabeau Levito from the U.S. and Europe’s champion Loena Hendrickx from Belgium.
Yoshida landed a triple lutz-triple toeloop combination, although the second jump was not fully rotated; she also executed a triple loop, culminating in her best short score of the season at 67.87 as she strives for her second career Grand Prix victory.
Italian skater Lara Naki Gutmann, who gained entry to the competition due to the withdrawals, seized the opportunity to score a personal best of 67.06, placing her in second with a program inspired by the Netflix series “Squid Game.”
American skater Sarah Everhardt rounded out the top three with a score of 66.28, performing a routine influenced by Irish dance.
The Finlandia Trophy represents the fifth event out of six in the Grand Prix series, where each skater or pair has the opportunity to compete a maximum of two times. The top-performing skaters will qualify for the Grand Prix Finals taking place next month in Grenoble, France.