Figure Skating

NAGANO - Former world champion Brian Joubert, fighting back from a disappointing start to the season, nailed a quadruple jump to take the lead after the short programme at the Grand Prix here Friday.

The 25-year-old Frenchman collected 85.35 points, followed by Americans Jeremy Abbott at 83.00 and Johnny Weir at 78.35 at the NHK Trophy, the fourth event of the six-stage ISU Grand Prix series.

Joubert, fourth at the season-opening Trophee Eric Bompard at home last month, wowed the crowd at the Big Hat arena with an opening quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combination, followed by a dazzling triple axel.

He stumbled out of his next element, a triple lutz, but went on with no further error to the music of "Rise" by Safri Duo. He was the only one in the 12-man field who had a quadruple in the short programme.

"I'm very happy about my performance today because I was very disappointed after my first Grand Prix," said the 2007 world champion, who clinched his third European crown and finished third at the world championships last season.

"It was very important for me to do this kind of programme and it made me very confident for the rest of the competition."

Abbott, 24, who won the Grand Prix Final title last season, skated without a mistake to The Beatles' "A Day in the Life," starting with a triple flip-triple toeloop combination and a triple axel, in his first Grand Prix of the season.

"I was most pleased that I got everything done," said the 25-year-old after scoring his personal best short programme in international competition. "In my mind, there were no missteps. So I thought at this point in the season it wasn't bad."

In the pairs short programme, Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia upstaged China's 2006 world champions Pang Qing and Tong Jian who touched the ice after an opening triple toeloop.

The Russian pair, who finished second behind Pang and Tong in the Rostelecom Cup in Moscow two weeks ago, collected 68.90 points for an error-free performance to the music of "The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saens.
The Chinese duo trailed Kavaguti and Smirnov by 1.60 points.

"We felt good as we skated. Of course, we have many points to improve," said Japanese-born Kavaguti, who obtained Russian citizenship last February a month after the couple lifted the silver medals at the European championships.

"We made jumping mistakes in our last event. We were better today but still short of perfection," she added.

In ice dance, Four Continent champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States took a 3.05-point lead over British siblings Sinead and John Kerr after the compulsory dance, which was "Tango Romantica."

The women's short programme was to be contested later in the day.
Men, women and pairs were to wrap up their battles with free skating on Saturday while ice dancers strut their stuff in the original dance, the second part of their three-part contest.

Vaughn Chipeur was the top Canadian in the men's short programme, finishing tenth. Mylène Brodeur and John Mattatall finished sixth for Canada in the pairs short programme. Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier brought home a fourth place finish in the ice dance competition.