SOCHI, Russia – While Yuzuru Hanyu was becoming the first Japanese man to win an Olympic figure skating title Friday night, his countrymen were doing pretty well, too.
Tatsuki Machida was fifth, rallying from 11th place after the short program. Daisuke Takahashi, the 2010 bronze medalist, came in sixth.
Machida, 23, fell on a quad, then landed every other element, including another quad in combination, to finish fourth in the free skate.
Takahashi, 27, skating to a beautifully choreographed program to a Beatles medley, had a faulty quad to start off. He also two-footed a triple axel in a combo jump.
But he was one of the few skaters who didn't run out of steam, looking powerful and crisp at the end of his 4 1-2-minute routine.
Japan's other figure skating medals came in the 2006 Turin Games when Shizuka Arakawa won the women's gold, and in 1992 when Midori Ito won silver behind Kristi Yamaguchi.
— By Barry Wilner — Twitter http://twitter.com/wilner88
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Associated Press reporters are filing dispatches about happenings in and around Sochi during the 2014 Winter Games. Follow AP journalists covering the Olympics on Twitter: http://apne.ws/1c3WMiu
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