| | NICE, France -- Three-time world champion
Elvis Stojko of Canada sent a warning to the Russian gold medal
favorites on Monday, impressively winning his qualifying group
at the World Figure Skating Championships.
Stojko, back in fighting trim after recovering from an
abdominal injury that had plagued him since his silver medal
performance at the 1998 Olympics, nailed six solid triple jumps
to top his group ahead of European champion Evgeny Plushenko and
another Russian Alexander Abt.
Defending champion Alexei Yagudin took top spot in the other
qualifying group but it was Stojko's performance that drew the
most rave reviews at the end of the first morning of the week
long competition.
Sidelined for more than a year, Stojko's injuries forced him
to miss the 1998 worlds and left the six-times Canadian champion
struggling to a fourth place finish last year in Helsinki,
prompting many to write him off.
But the 28-year-old announced his return to form with a
second place in the Grand Prix final in January and now appears
ready to confirm his comeback by winning a medal on the French
Riviera.
"It's building every day," said Stojko, world champion in
1994, 1995 and 1997. "I just wanted to push through the
program. I had lots of energy, I thought I could do another
program.
"On a scale of 1-to-10 I would rate my performance a seven
but that's exactly where you want to be at this stage."
Plushenko, who ended Yagudin's two-year reign as European
champion last month in Vienna, began his quest for a first world
title in shaky fashion hitting the ice hard on his opening jump,
a quadruple toe-loop.
The first skater on the Palais des Expositions ice, the
17-year-old Russian was greeted by thousands of school children
but the applause failed to inspire the gold medal favourite as
he fumbled through much of the remainder of his programme, worth
20 per cent of the total score.
Plushenko's error-littered effort produced predictable
results, all six judges scoring him mediocre marks of 5.4 and
5.5 for technical merit.
"It was very difficult for Evgeny to skate in the
morning," explained Plushenko's coach Alexei Mishin.
"I don't like these rules for qualifying. It's impossible
to train at six in the morning and then compete."
Yagudin got the defense of his crown off to an equally
inauspicious start when he doubled his opening jump, a planned
quad.
But unlike his team mate and friend, Yagudin quickly settled
into his task, successfully landing the quad on his next attempt
and adding eight triples to lead his group easily ahead of
American champion and last year's bronze medallist Michael Weiss.
| |
ALSO SEE
Yagudin looks impressive with new program
Russian pairs champs banned from world championships
 |
