Filipino figure skater Michael Martinez placed sixth in the Lombardia Trophy 2014 held in Milan, Italy on Sept. 18-21.

Martinez, who competed in the Sochi Winter Olympics last March, scored 199.92 points to finish sixth out of 13 participants. Richard Dornbush of USA bagged the championship with 237.78 points.

Martinez finished sixth in the short program with 67.36 points. He improved to fifth during the free skate but ranked sixth overall.

The competition was Martinez’s first major international tilt since winning the gold medal in the Triglav Trophy last April. The young skater continues to be plagued by funding woes, saying that he was not fully ready for the skating tilt due to lack of training.

“I’ve lost so many months of training time while waiting for the funding support, so I had to train harder these past weeks,” Martinez posted on his Facebook page.

The Lombardia Trophy is part of the International Skating Union (ISU) Challenger Series in Figure Skating, which allows participants to earn world standing points.

Martinez is set to compete in the Hilton Honors State America in Chicago, Ilinois from Oct. 24-26, the first of six events that make up the 2014 Grand Prix Series. He is the first skater representing the Philippines to be invited to compete in the Grand Prix.

Skaters will gain points based on their placements in each event and the top six will qualify for the Grand Prix Final, which will be held on Dec. 11-14 in Barcelona, Spain. — JST, GMA News