FIGURE SKATING: Yagudin comes back strong

2001 World Championships March 18 - March 26 Vancouver, Canada Men's Short Program

Alexei Yagudin showed everyone what a true champion is made out of. Yagudin brought down the house with a perfect and inspired short program, which included a quad toe-triple toe, triple axel, and triple lutz. The crowd gave the defending champion a deafening standing ovation. Yagudin placed second in the short program, and third overall.

After his disastrous qualifying round yesterday, Yagudin's foot was X-rayed and examined, and he received some injections and medication to dull the pain. There was no bone or ligament damage, and Yagudin decided that he would and could compete. And compete he certainly did, putting himself right back in fight for a medal.

Evgeny Plushenko won the short program by a split decision from the judges. He completed a beautiful quad toe-triple toe, squeaked out his triple axel, and a nice triple lutz. Four judges gave the nod to Yagudin, but five went for Plushenko. (However, even if Yagudin won the short program, Plushenko would still have come out on top, due to the scores from the qualifying round.)

Todd Eldredge had a great short program, landing a triple flip - triple toe, triple axel, and triple lutz. No quad, however, and it affected his technical marks, which drew some boos from the audience. Nevertheless, Eldredge was ranked third in the short program, and is currently second overall.

Elvis Stojko, tied for second place after the qualifying round, had the most disappointing short program of his career today. Stojko fell on his opening triple axel, and fell again on the quad. Stunned and holding back tears, Stojko could only watch as his scores came up, dropping him to tenth place. One wonders if the injuries that kept him out of competition earlier this season are still bothering him now. After a shaky qualifying round and a disastrous short program, it seems as if Stojko has been pushing himself too hard.

Takeshi Honda, who was tied for first place after the qualifying round, was lackluster in the short program. Honda fell on his quad toe and put his hand down on his triple axel. He fell to seventh place. Alexander Abt is in sixth place after two-footing his quad jump. Timothy Goebel landed his quad combination, as well as a triple axel and a triple flip, to place fourth.

The free skate, worth 50% of the total score, is on Thursday, and what an event it will be. Yagudin is back in the thick of things, but winning the gold medal will be a tough task, even for Yagudin. In order for Yagudin to claim his fourth consecutive World title, Evgeny Plushenko, will have to finish fourth or lower in the free skate.