Eldredge Stunned After Tumbling Into Fifth Place

Todd Eldredge had a premonition he might have problems with his short program Friday.

But not even Eldredge could foresee his performance at Skate America would be one of the worst of his career.

Not only did the five-time U.S. champion fall on his opening jump, a difficult quadruple toe-double toe combination, he fell on the landing of his triple axel, a dependable part of his repertoire. He also omitted some of the required footwork, faults the sometimes forgiving judges couldn’t overlook.

Eldredge, who landed a quadruple jump two weeks ago in winning the Masters of Skating event, hoped Skate America would launch him toward the Olympic medal that has twice eluded him. Instead, he was wondering why he unraveled and stood fifth after the short program, which counts for one-third of the total score.

“I’m unbelievably disappointed in how I skated,” said Eldredge, who got six 4.8s and one 4.7 (out of 6.0) for the required elements. “Obviously, everybody is nervous when they go out and compete. Because of my practice being a little shaky, I didn’t get a boost. . . . I can’t put into words how I feel.”

Three-time world champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia, who skated to music by Rachmaninov, placed first with an impressive routine that included a quadruple toe-triple toe combination jump and a remarkably high triple axel. Timothy Goebel, who trains in El Segundo with Coach Frank Carroll, was second, and Emanuel Sandhu of Canada was third. Trifun Zivanovic, who trains at Skating Edge in Torrance, was eighth.

The men’s free skate will take place Sunday at Colorado Springs World Arena.

Yagudin was exhausted after his program, as he was in winning here a year ago. “I just hope not to skate in the mountains again,” he said. “After I did my first two jumps I said, ‘It’s going to be hard to skate the rest of this.’ I had all my difficult stuff at the beginning of the program. When I made it, I said, ‘I just need to finish.’ ”

Goebel left coaches Carol Heiss Jenkins and Glyn Watts for Carroll after finishing 11th at the world championships, down two spots from 1999. “Going to Frank Carroll, I was looking to improve my second marks,” he said of his presentation scores, which on Friday ranged from 5.4 to 5.6. “Through working with him, I’ve really improved my posture. I was real pleased to skate the short program clean.”

In a mild upset, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada won the long program to defeat world silver medalists Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo and repeat as pairs champions. Sale and Pelletier, fourth at the world championships, blended challenging elements with an appealing flair as they skated to the “Tristan and Isolde Fantasie” by Waxman. Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia were third.

“Obviously, it wasn’t our best and there’s room for improvement,” said Sale, who did a double toe loop while her partner did a triple toe loop. “We’re very happy with the program we skated and the way it turned out.”

Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman of the U.S. moved up from fifth to fourth. Tiffany Scott and Philip Dulebohn of the U.S. were fifth, and Jessica Miller and Jeffrey Weiss of the U.S. stayed seventh.

The women’s championship will be decided today with the free skate. Michelle Kwan won the short program and is favored to defend her title.

The ice dance winner will also be determined in today’s free dance, worth 50% of the total score. Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio of Italy, the world silver medalists, won the original dance to retain their lead, and Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania moved up from fourth to second. Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz of Canada dropped from second to third after Kraatz endured a rare fall in the middle of a required footwork sequence.

Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev of the U.S., who were third after the compulsory dance, performed a swingy routine to a Frank Sinatra recording of “Fly me to the Moon.” However, the judges disagreed with the crowd and placed the couple fifth. That put them fifth overall.