Michael Martinez and Christopher Caluza registered fine performances, but could not recover from their tough starts and finished in 24th and 25th place, respectively, at the end of the 2021 CS Finlandia Trophy at Espoo Metro Areena, Espoo, Finland, Friday.
Martinez this time nailed most of his jumps and had to hang on on some to end with 43.82 on the technical elements, starting with a triple axel.
The 24-year-old’s highlight was his triple lutz-double toe combo, the first jump he landed cleanly in this comeback season, were two of the judges scored him a +1 on the GOEs, but ultimately just got the base value of 7.20.
As expected, Martinez showed up with his polished skating skills, and his interpretation of Kamada Tanjiro no Uta from the anime Demon Slayer brought his scores up to a total of 101.16 for the free skate.
The two-time Winter Olympian rounded up his comeback competition in 24th place with 156.78 points.
On the other hand, Caluza, who posted on Instagram of his decision to most likely retire after this season, showed up with another graceful performance that earned him a total of 156.24 points on his first tournament after the 20219 Southeast Asian Games.
The 31-year-old had trouble nailing his jumps with the double axels near the middle of his routine coming as saving grace, giving him 3.74 each, 0.44 off the base value of 3.30.
With some solid elements scattered throughout the program, Caluza earned a high score on composition with 5.50, but it was, similarly, on the interpretation that the 2019 SEA Games silver medalist brought his scores afloat at 5.63.
Unfortunately, Caluza’s performance of Experience by Ludovico Einaudi only earned him 96.50 — the lowest score for the segment, pushing down a notch just below compatriot Martinez and just ahead of the last-placed Micha Steffen of Switzerland.
On Saturday, it is the turn of 16-year-old Sofia Frank in the ladies’ individual as she delves into the short program. Freeskate is likewise scheduled on the following day.
