Kagiyama and Yoshida win despite errors at Finlandia Trophy

HELSINKI (AP) — Yuma Kagiyama skated what he thought might be his “worst program” of the season and still won the Finlandia Trophy on Saturday, securing his place at next month's Grand Prix Final.

The Olympic silver medalist from Japan had a big lead from Friday's short program. He needed it. Kagiyama bailed out of his opening quadruple flip and had to put a foot down to steady himself on the landing of his second quad jump.

Kagiyama credited the crowd with helping him stabilize the skate, landing two more quads and finishing with a points total of 263.09 to win by less than four points from France’s Kevin Aymoz, who had been nearly 19 adrift following the short program.

“More than the feeling of being happy, I have regrets of how I skated in the free skate and I think it may have been the worst program that I’ve done this season,” Kagiyama said through an interpreter. “I regret not having been able to bring my best to you all here today.”

Kagiyama joins Ilia Malinin of the United States on two Grand Prix wins. Kagiyama won his titles back-to-back on opposite sides of the world after victory at the NHK Trophy in Japan last week.

Aymoz picked up his fourth career Grand Prix silver medal and second of the season — he has yet to win a gold in the series — after some problems of his own. Aymoz fell on his opening quad toeloop but recovered for a total 259.15, narrowly beating Italy's Daniel Grassl on 258.55.

Grassl was sixth in the short program and rose to a podium place in the free skate for the second week running after improving from fifth to second at the NHK Trophy.

The 2023 world championship silver medalist Cha Jun-hwan of South Korea withdrew from the event overnight with an unspecified injury after placing seventh in the short program.

Hana Yoshida shrugged off a fall on her opening triple axel to become the third Japanese skater to win a women's Grand Prix this season. She won by the tightest of margins.

Yoshida's score of 199.46 was ahead of fellow Japanese skater Rino Matsuike on 199.20 only because Matsuike was given a one-point deduction for a time violation.

“I’m really happy that I got to win a gold medal but I wanted to land the triple axel, so I think I could do better," Yoshida said. “But I’m happy because I didn’t give up until the last second.”

The field for the competition was depleted by the withdrawals last week of world silver medalist Isabeau Levito of the United States and European champion Loena Hendrickx of Belgium.

Italy's Lara Naki Gutmann wasn't even meant to be in the competition, but those withdrawals handed her a spot and she turned it into her first career Grand Prix medal with bronze on 198.49, denying American skater Sarah Everhardt a podium spot.

Gutmann is the only skater not from the U.S. or Japan to win a women's medal in a Grand Prix this season.

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier of Canada took the lead in ice dance with a score of 84.65 in the rhythm dance, ahead of Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson on 82.03 and Finland's Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis on 78.31.

The ice dance and pairs competitions conclude on Sunday.

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Lara Naki Gutmann of Italy competes during women's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Rino Matsuike of Japan competes during women's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Hana Yoshida of Japan competes during women's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Daniel Grassl of Italy performs during the men's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Kevin Aymoz of France performs during the men's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Kevin Aymoz of France performs during the men's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Yuma Kagiyama of Japan performs during the men's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Yuma Kagiyama of Japan performs during the men's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

Yuma Kagiyama of Japan during the men's free skating at the international figure skating competition Finlandia Trophy in Helsinki, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy Carter 's long public goodbye began Saturday in south Georgia where the 39th U.S. president's life began more than 100 years ago.

A motorcade with Carter's flag-draped casket began at the Phoebe Sumter Medical Center in Americus, where former Secret Service agents who protected the former president served as pallbearers and walked along side the hearse as it left the campus.

The Carter family, including the former president's four children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are accompanying their patriarch in a procession that will take his remains through his beloved hometown of Plains and past his boyhood home on its way to Atlanta.

Carter died at his home in Plains on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.

Families lined the procession route in downtown Plains, near the historic train depot where Carter headquartered his presidential campaign. Some carried bouquets of flowers or wore commemorative pins bearing Carter’s photo.

“We want to pay our respects,” said 12-year-old Will Porter Shelbrock, who was born more than three decades after Carter left the White House in 1981. “He was ahead of his time on what he tried to do and tried to accomplish.”

It was Shelbrock’s idea to make the trip to Plains from Gainesville, Fla., with his grandmother, Susan Cone, 66, so they could witness the start of Carter's final journey. Shelbrock said he admires Carter for his humanitarian work building houses and waging peace, and for installing solar panels on the White House.

Carter and his late wife Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, were born in Plains and lived most of their lives in and around the town, with the exceptions of Jimmy's Navy career and his terms as Georgia governor and president.

The procession will stop in front of Carter's boyhood home on his family farm just outside of Plains. The National Park Service will ring the old farm bell 39 times to honor his place as the 39th president. Carter's remains then will proceed to Atlanta for a moment of silence in front of the Georgia Capitol and a ceremony at the Carter Presidential Center.

There, he will lie in repose until Tuesday morning, when he will be transported to Washington to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. His state funeral is Thursday at 10 a.m. at Washington National Cathedral, followed by a return to Plains for an invitation-only funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church.

He will be buried near his home, next to Rosalynn Carter.

Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter welcomes visitors to Maranatha Baptist Church before teaching Sunday school in Plains, Ga., June 8, 2014. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

FILE - People wait in line outside Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., to get into a Sunday school class taught by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Aug. 23, 2015. It was Carter's first lesson since announcing plans for intravenous drug doses and radiation to treat melanoma found in his brain after surgery to remove a tumor from his liver. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

People line the street in Plains, Ga., before the hearse carrying the casket of former President Jimmy Carter passes through the town Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. Carter died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)

FILE - Former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown, Aug. 23, 2015, in Plains, Ga. The 90-year-old Carter gave one lesson to about 300 people filling the small Baptist church that he and his wife, Rosalynn, attend. It was Carter's first lesson since detailing the intravenous drug doses and radiation treatment planned to treat melanoma found in his brain after surgery to remove a tumor from his liver. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)