Eldredge Sloppy; Meno, Sand Get Silver

Once again, Todd Eldredge let his moment slip away.

With the Olympic medalists taking a pass on the World Figure Skating Championships, a second world title was Eldredge’s for the taking. But it’s not going to be nearly so easy now.

Only 20 seconds into his short program Wednesday, the five-time U.S. champion blew his first move, his jump combination. The rest of his program was clean, but that one mistake was enough to drop him to fourth.

“I came here and said I’d go out and skate the best I can for myself and the crowd,” he said. “Everything after the opening combination was fine. It takes one mistake for us guys, and we will not get the marks we expect.”

Eldredge can still prevail if he wins today’s free skate, worth two-thirds of the total score, but he’s going to need help. Russians Alexei Yagudin and Yevgeny Plushenko stand in his way. Yagudin, fifth at the Olympics, is first; and Plushenko, who at only 15 isn’t even supposed to be here, is second. Michael Weiss, the other American, was third.

“It’s not over yet,” said Eldredge, who must beat Yagudin by at least two spots in the free skate to win the gold.

In their final pairs appearance before turning pro, Jenni Meno and Todd Sand turned around one of the most disappointing years of their careers and finished second to Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze.

“It’s been a nice long career for Jenni and I,” Sand said. “We had a lot of ups and downs, especially over the last 18 months. Some things really didn’t go the way we planned.

“We are really happy we came here and we skated from our heart and went out on a high note.”

Olympic silver medalists Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze swept the judges with a slow but solid routine.

Germany’s Peggy Schwarz and Mirko Muller struggled through a rather dull routine, but it was good enough to give them third. They were ninth in the Olympics, one spot behind Meno and Sand.