VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Alexei Yagudin fell on his sword.

	Alexei Yagudin picks himself up after falling during the men's qualifying round, one of several miscues he had during his routine.

Luckily for the three-time champion, his woeful performance came in the qualifying round Monday at the World Figure Skating Championships. Yagudin, who finished behind fellow Russian Yevgeni Pluschenko and Americans Todd Eldredge and Timothy Goebel in Group A, can make it up in the short program and free skate.

If he is healthy enough, that is. His coach, Tatiana Tarasova, said Yagudin hurt his right foot jogging and couldn't control his landings.

Skating to music from the film "Gladiator," the Russian never put up a fight. From his first jump, a quadruple toe loop on which he crashed hard to the ice, to a missed set of spins to a sloppy finish, Yagudin struggled.

He didn't even wait in the "kiss and cry" area to view his marks, instead storming backstage. After seeing he would be far behind -- fifth in the group, exceedingly generous for such a disaster -- he headed to the dressing room, a friend's arm around Yagudin's slumped shoulder.

"Even yesterday, he was skating in pain," Tarasova said.

Pluschenko, who has won four of his five competitions this season and beat Yagudin in the Grand Prix finals lasy month, fell on his opening quad toe. But everything else was superb, particularly his sharp closing spins. He flowed from element to element, which included eight triples, four in combination, to Russian folk ballads.

"It was OK, but I did not do the quad," Pluschenko said. "I was calm, I was confident in myself."

So, obviously, was Eldredge, who called his routine "the best performance I've done all year." He would have drawn much higher marks had he not skated first in Group A.

"There's a lot of good guys ahead," he acknowledged when he finished. "They (the judges) have got to hold back."

He drew a loud ovation when introduced, and the crowd -- including many waving Canadian flags who joined the Americans holding up their flags -- was on its feet as the five-time U.S. champion capped his program with a series of sensational spins. In all, he nailed eight triples to music from the film "1492," an old routine he resurrected for worlds after struggling through most of his comeback season.

Eldredge didn't skate competitively in 1999 and 2000.

"The crowd really went nuts," said Eldredge, 29, who won his only world title in Edmonton in 1996. "It was a great feeling; I'm glad I made the decision to come back."

U.S. champion Timothy Goebel was just behind Eldredge, even though Goebel's routine was far more difficult. Goebel, of course, isn't yet the artist Eldredge is, but he did show a distinct improvement in presentation. And he landed two quads, one in combination, and seven triples.

"It's the end of the line," Goebel said of the long season. "I want to skate the best programs I can possibly skate. Today was a good start and I just want to follow through. It's a good point to build from the rest of the week."

Canadian favorite Elvis Stojko, skating in his first event of the season after battling leg injuries, finished second to Takeshi Honda of Japan in the far weaker Group B. But Stojko, who turns 29 Thursday, didn't look like a contender for a fourth world title, even with the overwhelming support of the flag-waving crowd.

Honda opened poorly, popping a triple axel and falling on a quad salchow. But he did hit a quad toe and won his qualifier with a superb finish that featured five strong triples, including a triple axel-triple toe out of a spread-eagle.

"I was skating for me," said Honda, whose best finish at worlds was sixth two years ago. "I didn't care who was first or second, but just do my stuff."

Stojko, world champ in 1994, '95 and '97 and a two-time Olympic silver medalist, received especially charitable marks for his lackluster performance. There was little emotion in his routine, also to "Gladiator," and even the technical elements were shaky -- although not nearly as poor as Yagudin would do later on.

Stojko stepped out of a quad toe and two-footed another. He also botched his first triple axel and managed just a double axel the next time.

"If I landed everything, everybody would say, 'Oh, he's back,' and they'd just expect it," said Stojko, who also was uncomfortable with skating at 9:30 a.m. "I'm not a machine, I'm human. I'm able to build to something."

He'll need a major construction project to get to the podium. So will Yagudin.