FIGURE SKATING: Yagudin falls, Plushenko and Honda in first

2001 World Championships March 19 - March 25 Vancouver, Canada Men's Qualifying Round

As the three-time and defending World Champion, Alexei Yagudin was expected to skate perfectly and finish either first or second in his qualifying round (A) today. However, today was the most disappointing day in Alexei's career.

Having skated well in practice all week long, Yagudin took the ice for his qualifying skate…and fell, hard, on his opening quad attempt. Yagudin got back up and went right into his second quad attempt…which he doubled. He then popped his triple axel, and fell on his flying spin. Within the first minute of the program, Yagudin had already lost the World title. And he was unable to recover. Unlike his previous events, where Yagudin would come to life in the last half of his program, today, it seemed as if Yagudin fell into a hole he could not dig himself out of. He did a nice triple flip, and followed that with a triple axel, but singled the triple toe combination on the end of the axel. A double loop and double lutz did not help him.

Alexei was stunned at the end of his performance. Utterly dejected, he awaited his marks backstage -- as low as 5.0 for technical merit, and dipping down to 5.3 for presentation. Yagudin is in fifth place in his qualifying group alone, which places him in a tie for ninth place overall.

Although Yagudin has essentially no chance at the Gold medal, he will have a chance to move up in the short program and free skate. Whether or not he is healthy enough to do so remains a big question mark. It was later revealed that Yagudin is skating with an injury to his right foot.

Evgeny Plushenko won the qualifying group (A). Although Plushenko fell on his first quad, he rallied and skated the rest of his program with spark. He easily took first place. In second is Todd Eldredge, who skated cleanly but conservatively. Timothy Goebel skated very well to finish third in Group A, while Alexander Abt finished surprisingly well, in fourth place above Alexei Yagudin.

While Group A was packed with the fiercest competitors for the World title, Qualifying Group B had a far weaker field -- Elvis Stojko was the most serious contender, but he was coming back from an injury and this is his first event of the entire season. It showed, as Stojko was shaky throughout his skate and had a few misses. He finished second in Group B. Takeshi Honda popped his first triple axel and stepped out of his quad, but fought back to finish first. In third place is the European bronze medallist Stannick Jeannette, who took a fall on his triple flip.

The Qualifying Round accounts for 20% of the total score. The short program, worth 30%, takes place tomorrow. With Yagudin down so far in the standings, Plushenko has a clear path to the World title.