Updated at 7:11 a.m., Thursday, March 22, 2007
Joubert takes gold, Japan skater wows crowd at worlds
By Eric Talmadge
Associated Press
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''It's been a great season,'' Joubert said today after watching hometown favorite Daisuke Takahashi bring the house down with the best free skate of the night but fall short of the lead.
U.S. hopefuls Evan Lysacek, the new national champion, and Johnny Weir, his predecessor, finished fifth and eighth, respectively.
''This is definitely by far my worst performance,'' Lysacek said. ''But I fought all the way through. I'm proud of what I did. I gave it everything, I couldn't give it any more.''
Weir — who dumped a quad in mid-air, opting instead for a triple — said he was glad to be going home, where he will start working up two new routines for next season.
''There is something that is not clicking,'' he said.
Joubert's free skate to cello renditions of heavy metal music included a quad and seven triples.
Going into the program with a solid lead from the previous day's short program, he decided to play it safe _ his routine was not as demanding as the one he performed at November's Cup of Russia, when he completed three quads.
He ended up third in the free — but that was all he wanted.
''I didn't sleep very well last night so I was very tired,'' Joubert said. ''Then I had a bad practice this morning so I was not so confident. I did not want to win the free program, but I wanted to skate a clean program.''
He said he changed a second quad to a triple-triple because ''it was enough to win.''
Joubert scored 240.85 points to 237.95 for Takahashi. Switzerland's Stephane Lambiel, who won the title the previous two years and was the silver medalist at the Turin Olympics, took bronze with a 233.35.
''In the past two, three seasons all my dreams have come true,'' Lambiel said. ''So it was hard for me to find new goals.''
Joubert — the first Frenchman to win a world singles title since Alain Calmat in 1965 — had to wait to the end to know his fate.
After Joubert's skate, Takahashi took to the ice amid uproarious applause.
Though he bobbled his quad, he hit eight triples. When he finished, the sellout crowd of 6,000 was on their feet and tears were streaming down Takahashi's face.
''I'm just glad I didn't fall down,'' he said. ''I really cried. I've never cried with joy like that before.''
Canada's Jeff Buttle was the final skater and could have been a contender but fell twice and touched his hand to the ice. He dropped to sixth.
Earlier today, defending ice dancing champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria edged ahead of Canada's Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon after the original dance.
The top three from last year's championships are in the same position heading into Friday's free dance, but separated by only a half-point.
Denkova and Staviski jumped ahead of Dubreuil and Lauzon — who led after the compulsory dance on Tuesday — by a margin of 99.52-99.50. Four-time American champions Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto were in third with 99.02.
''It makes it anybody's game,'' Agosto said. ''The free dance will be interesting.''
Belbin banged the boards during the performance, noting it was their first skate in the arena after practicing in another rink.
''I put my hands on the boards to keep my feet away from it,'' Belbin said. ''Overall it didn't look as bad as it felt.''
The women begin tomorrow with an expected showdown between local favorite Mao Asada and defending champion Kimmie Meissner of the United States.
