Yagudin, Goebel Take Lead

Russia’s Alexei Yagudin, the only Salt Lake Olympic champion competing in the World Figure Skating Championships, easily led his qualifying group in the men’s competition Monday.

In the other qualifying group, former U.S. champions Tim Goebel and Michael Weiss each landed quadruple jumps to finish 1-2. The qualifying counts for 20% of the final score.

In pairs competition, China’s Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo won the short program, worth one-third of the final score. Placing second were Russia’s Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin. The U.S. pair of Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman was third.

Both Olympic gold-medal pairs--Russia’s Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, and Canada’s Jamie Sale and David Pelletier--skipped the event.

In men’s qualifying group, Goebel, the 2001 U.S. champion, landed two quads, including one in combination, as he performed a clean routine to “An American in Paris.” In Salt Lake City, Goebel landed three quads, a first in the Olympics.

“In qualifying it’s not worth the risk of doing a third quad,” Goebel said. “But I’m happy I did the quad-toe, because I’ve been having trouble with that.”

His other quad was a salchow.