NAGANO, Japan -- Former U.S. champions Tim Goebel and Michael Weiss landed quadruple jumps to finish 1-2 in their qualifying group at the World Figure Skating Championships on Monday.

	With the top two pairs out, Americans Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman are in contention for a medal. They finished third in the short program.

Russian Alexei Yagudin, the only Olympic champion on hand, easily won the other qualifying group.

In the first major event since the scandal-scarred Winter Olympics, skaters are trying to bring normalcy back to the sport.

The men started with their qualifying, which counts for 20 percent of the final score, and the pairs short program was won by China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo. They were third at the Olympics behind Russians Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, and Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier.

Both Olympic gold-medal pairs skipped the competition following a Winter Games marred by the judging scandal. Four days after the Canadians finished second in Salt Lake City, the International Olympic Committee awarded them duplicate golds. The International Skating Union has set hearings for next month.

With the top two pairs out, Americans Kyoko Ina and John Zimmerman are in contention for a medal. They finished third in the short program, worth one-third of the total score. Ina and Zimmerman finished fifth in Salt Lake City.

In his 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 at the Olympics, although he has done it before in other competitions.

"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.

Despite skating first in the group, his marks of 5.7 and 5.8 held up throughout.

Weiss, despite a fall, had a 5.9 from one judge for presentation and generally 5.4 to 5.6 for the required elements.

The 1999 and 2000 U.S. champion, Weiss fell while attempting a quadruple lutz, a jump no skater has completed in competition. At the national championships in 1998, Weiss two-footed the landing.

"A few years I was injured, and then I started working for it again," he said. "Before and after the Olympics, I started trying the quad lutz and I just landed a very clean one earlier this week."

U.S. champion Todd Eldredge, the third American at the Olympics, retired from competition last month and was replaced by Matt Savoie, who was sixth in Yagudin's group.

Yagudin, skating to music from the movie "Gladiator," opened with a flawless routine in the early qualifying group at the M-Wave. He nailed a quad toe-triple toe combination.

Yagudin received all 5.8s and one 5.9 for technical merit, and all 5.9s for presentation. He looked very relaxed on and off the ice, signing autographs and paying close attention to his Japanese fans.

"I was happy to go in the early group," said Yagudin, who celebrated his 22nd birthday Monday. "With the jet lag I feel really good in the morning."

Yagudin arrived in Nagano on Saturday after a 14-hour flight from Hartford, Conn.

In the pairs, Ina and Zimmerman said they are glad to get back to competition. After the Olympics they thought they would get a rest, but coach Igor Moskvin thought differently.

"He put the hammer down. We have never felt it was like the end of the season," Ina said. "We are glad we are here to get a rest" from training hard.

Ina and Zimmerman made no mistakes in a routine to Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and earned marks ranging from 5.5 to 5.7 for required elements and 5.6 to 5.8 for presentation.

They missed overtaking second-place Russians Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin by one vote. The pairs free skate is Wednesday.

"We are happy. We know we have to be in the top three to have a chance," Ina said. "Or in the case of the ladies event, the top four."

She was referring to Sarah Hughes, who astounded everyone by jumping from fourth to win the women's event at the Olympics.

However, if the Chinese continue skating as well as they did Monday, they will be difficult to beat.

The Chinese pair opened their routine to "Kismet" with a throw triple loop. Zhao threw Shen so high and so far she looked as if she might land in another time zone. They received mostly 5.8s for technical merit and presentation.

The Chinese are not concerned that the Olympic gold medalists are not here.

"Whether they are here or not we will still be performing our best for the audience," Zhao said. "We are competing against ourselves, not anyone else."