The NHK Trophy in Kumamoto, Japan, concluded on Sunday with the Men's Free Program and the Exhibition Gala. The NHK Trophy was the sixth and last event of the Grand Prix of Figure Skating series.

Men, Free Program

It was the Men's' turn to skate their Free Program on Sunday afternoon and the event brought some surprises. Home crowd favorite Takeshi Honda of Japan defended his overnight lead to take the gold, but below him the standings shuffled. Canada's Jeffrey Buttle pulled up from fourth place to second, claiming the silver medal in his first senior Grand Prix event, while Ivan Dinev of Bulgaria dropped one spot, settling for the bronze.

Honda looked great in the warm up, nailing his quads and triples. However, when his time came to skate, he seemed nervous. The 20-year-old opened his "Concerto de Aranjuez" program with a triple flip out of footwork, but then he put his hand down on the quadruple toeloop and two-footed the quadruple Salchow. The Japanese managed to land a triple loop and a wobbly triple Axel, but then he singled his second Axel and stepped out of the triple Lutz in his Lutz-double toeloop combination. The program featured excellent choreography, for which he received marks up to 5.9 for presentation. His technical marks ranged from 5.4 to 5.7. Honda is the first Japanese to win the NHK Trophy, since Fumio Igarashi stepped on top of the podium in 1981. "It was a good year to win", Honda laughed. "I'm 20 years old and it has been 20 years since a Japanese won the competition." The skater has qualified for the Grand Prix Final for his first time. He was a substitute for Elvis Stojko in 1999, but could not compete due to injury. "I'm glad that I earned my spot myself", he said. "I'm happy that I went for the two quads today. I put my hand down on the toeloop, but I almost landed the quad Salchow. The Salchow has been good in practice, there was no reason no to try it."

Buttle turned out to be the surprise of the competition. The 19-year-old newcomer on the circuit landed a triple flip-triple toeloop combination and five more triples in his entertaining interpretation of "La Strada" and thrilled the crowd with his excellent combination spin. The only glitch came when he stepped out of the landing of the triple Axel. The Canadian received marks from 5.0 to 5.6 for technical merit and from 5.4 to 5.7 for presentation, which boosted him on to the podium. "Most of all I'm happy with my skating", Buttle told the press. "I'm a little disappointed with the stepping out of the triple Axel. I've made a lot of progress since last year. This is a big step for me." Buttle is training together with Honda at the same club in Canada.

Dinev skated right after Honda and saw the high marks of his competitor. The 23-year-old had to overcome a shaky start, as he popped his intended quadruple toeloop in his original performance to modern Bulgarian Folk music. He recovered to hit a triple Axel-double toeloop combination and a shaky triple Lutz. Three more triples followed, but on the triple loop, Dinev touched down on the ice and doubled the Salchow at the end. "I'm glad to be in third, but I was prepared well enough to finish second", the Bulgarian commented. "I missed triple jumps that are solid for me." Dinev, who also finished third at the Cup of Russia, has also qualified for the Final for the first time in his career. "That's an important competition with the best athletes. It's a great opportunity for me to compete there", he said.

Yamoto Tamura of Japan, who stood in second after the Short, went down to fourth place after several errors in his program.

Like Dinev, Honda will now advance to the Final, as he has scored 21 points overall in his two events at Skate America and the NHK Trophy. Buttle got 9 points, but he has competed in only one Grand Prix event.

Results

Men

PL	Competitor		Nation	SP	FS	TFP

1.	Takeshi HONDA		JPN	1	1	1.5
2.	Jeffrey BUTTLE		CAN	4	2	4.0
3.	Ivan DINEV		BUL	3	3	4.5
4.	Yamato TAMURA		JPN	2	6	7.0
5.	Anthony LIU		AUS	7	4	7.5
6.	Min ZHANG		CHN	5	5	7.5
7.	Roman SKORNIAKOV	UZB	6	7	10.0
8.	Makoto OKAZAKI		JPN	8	8	12.0



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Aline Bussat Ingwersen, 
ISU Media Coordinator 
Tel: +41 21 612 66 66   
Fax: +41 21 612 66 77
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or

NHK Trophy
Mr. Hiroshi Kobayashi, 
Press Officer
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