Figure skating: Tatsuya Tsuboi top, Kazuki Tomono 3rd after Challenge Cup SP

TILBURG, Netherlands (Kyodo) — Japan’s Tatsuya Tsuboi placed top and compatriot Kazuki Tomono third after the men’s short program at the figure skating Challenge Cup on Friday.

Tsuboi landed his opening quad salchow en route to scoring 85.80 points. His score put him narrowly ahead of second-placed Russian Mikhail Shaidorov’s 85.75.

“I had prepared well ahead of this meet,” Tsuboi said. “I have nothing to worry about and managed to bring myself up to a decent level to start things off. I’ll do my best in the free skate, too.”

Tomono fell on his opening quad toeloop but bounced back by nailing a quad salchow-double toeloop combination as he logged 84.74 to stay in contention.

“I had a cramp in my leg when I fell,” he said. “I managed to regain my footing from the worst situation. I hope to perform with confidence in the free skate.”

The Challenge Cup is a long-running competition hosted in Tilburg, the Netherlands, which is not part of the ISU Grand Prix series.