The error - a missed combination - came during a charming long program drawing on Charlie Chaplin's goofy grace. The victory was redemption for last year, when they were disqualified after Berezhnaya tested positive for a banned substance.

Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze earned a perfect 6.0 for presentation - in a field where 5.9s were common - after a program that won over the audience with its comical poses. At one point, Sikharulidze stuck out his belly and scratched his behind, and there were pleasing pauses as they pretend to falter at a musical stop.

The Chaplinesque humor vanquished their one error: Berezhnaya touched down during the side-by-side double axel, forcing them to pass on a planned combination.

"After the mistake I pulled myself together," Berezhnaya said, holding back tears after the marks were announced. "I knew that I couldn't make another mistake."

The performance held off an advance by Totmianina and Marinin, who made no mistakes and were the only pair to complete two side-by-side triple jumps. Still, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze edged them technically, with marks ranging from 5.7 to 5.9s, to their compatriots' 5.6s to 5.8s.

"This was the skating of our life," Marinin said. "We never skated our program so clean."

Abitbol and Bernadis, third at least year's world's, defended their European bronze with a routine to an edgy, sometimes industrial version of Tristan and Isolde arranged specially for them. Abitbol touched down on a throw triple loop, but it was a small error.

Defending European champion Irina Slutskaya's pursuit of technical difficulty has raised the bar for American champ Michelle Kwan, who has been seeking consistency in her triple-triple combination. Yet that competitive drive was notably absent from Slutskaya's qualifying Wednesday, where she finished easily at the top of her group.

The round counts for 20 percent of the final score - but neither Slutskaya, seeking her fourth European title, or teammate Maria Butyrskaya, looking for her third, displayed more than a glimmer of their true mastery.

Slutskaya even wore her reserve costume, saving the elegant black and Bordeaux red dress designed by Bolshoi ballet's own costume designer for the final free skate on Saturday.

Slutskaya is the only woman who has hit the difficult triple lutz-triple loop, and her long program can feature up to seven triple jumps. Yet in qualifying she hit just five triples. It was for lack of trying.

"Why should I put in everything?" she said.

Butyrskaya, her real competition here, skated in the second group. She hit four triples - including a triple toe-triple salchow combination - but had a couple of rough landings.

"It's the only one I have so I had better do it in my program," Butyrskaya said.

Both Butyrskaya, 28, and Slutskaya, 21, will be taking aim at Kwan at the worlds in Vancouver, British Columbia, in March. Both Russians have beaten her in the past, Slutskaya three times in 2000. Butyrskaya, European champion in 1998 and 1999, beat Kwan at the 1999 world championships