COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Despite a rare fall, world champion Evgeni Plushenko won the short program at the Grand Prix figure skating finals Friday night.

Aided by the new points judging system being used in this series, Plushenko overcame a hard crash on his opening combination jump, edging Emanuel Sandhu of Richmond Hill, Ont., for the victory.

Plushenko, skating last, a position he dislikes, didn't get high enough for his quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop combination and fell just seconds into his routine. But he recovered with his footwork, two other clean jumps and some showmanship to finish on top heading into Saturday's free skate.

Plushenko has not lost a significant event since the Salt Lake City Olympics.

"It helps," the Russian said of the scoring system, adding that his fall was "stupid, absolutely stupid, and I can't explain it."

Plushenko has a damaged meniscus in his right knee, but he refused to blame the injury for his hardest fall since the short program at the 2002 Olympics.

"That fall was not my knee or my feet, it was a problem with my head," he said. "I'm in good shape now; I don't know what happened. I feel like an idiot."

Sandhu, who didn't know until Tuesday that he was to compete in the event, nearly took advantage of Plushenko's stumble for an upset.

Sandhu beat Plushenko in the technical marks 40.30 points to 37.70. But the defending champion scored 40.55 for his overall presentation to 35.35 for Sandhu.

"Nobody can foresee where you will end up, but it is not a huge shock to me to be in second place," Sandhu said. "It's a cool place to be, actually."

Michael Weiss, the three-time U.S. champion, finished third despite suffering from the flu.

"I was very happy, considering I have been in bed for a week," he said.

Jeffrey Buttle of Sudbury, Ont., ranked second in the series to Plushenko, withdrew due to a stomach flu.

In the pairs short program earlier Friday night, world champions Shen Zue and Zhao Hongbo of China finished first despite a few small bobbles. They earned 66.00 points from the panel of 10 judges, of which only seven scores are counted.

After a massive throw triple loop on which Shen probably could have done another rotation, Zhao mis-stepped out of side-by-side triple toe loops. Their death spiral also was mediocre, as was the dismount of a lift. But the rest of the routine was impressive, and they were rewarded for it.

"It was very hard to skate because of the altitude," Zhao said. "When we finished, I just thought I need oxygen."

Defending champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia received 62.96 points for a lyrical performance to piano music by Paganini. Anabelle Langlois of Grand-Mere, Que., and Patrice Archetto of Montreal finished fourth.