VIENNA, Austria -- Alexei Yagudin set a precedent and went into the lead of the men's event when he edged Russian rival Yevgeny Plushchenko in the short program Tuesday at the European Figure Skating Championships.
Both landed quadruple jumps -- the first done in the European championships -- in the short program, which counts for 30 percent of the overall mark."It was an ideal performance," Yagudin, who landed his quad before Pluschenko. "I was happy to draw the first number. "I just went out and skated like in practice."
The free program Thursday should decide who wins. Yagudin is seeking his third consecutive European crown.
"I watched Yevgeny tonight and he was pretty good," Yagudin said. "It's the judge's work to put us one and two."
Skating with a soft cast after breaking a bone in his hand during training last month, Yagudin appeared unhampered by his injury. He opened with a sure quadruple jump, then did a triple axel-triple toe loop combination to a jazzed-up version of the "Nutcracker Suite" by Tchaikovsky.
While the landing on the axel was a little scratchy, he still held it to earn straight 5.8s for the required elements. His artistic scores were five 5.8s and four 5.9s.
He needed them to edge Plushchenko by a 5-4 margin.
Plushchenko skated his routine to "Saber Dance." His combination also could have been better, and that was costly. He received four 5.7s for his technical marks.
Dmitri Dmitrenko of Ukraine, the 1993 European champion, was third, highlighting his performance with a step sequence entirely on one foot.
Dmitrenko said he has changed in the seven years since he won. The best place since was a sixth in 1994.
"I'm not the guy who won those Europeans. This is a new guy," Dmitrenko said.
Earlier in the day, France's Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat took the lead in the ice dance compulsories to break into the Russian domination of the competition.
The Russians have taken all three men's medals the past two years and have not lost any of the four events since 1996.
But that streak is in jeopardy. Anissina and Peizerat finished first in the compulsory Yankee Polka and Argentine Tango and appear on their way to a victory.
"We are here to earn our placement," said the Russian-born Anissina, who teamed up with Peizerat in 1993. "We had two little mistakes in the first dance but they didn't affect the overall skating and expression."
The French couple, who won bronze at the 1998 Olympics and finished runner-up at the worlds the same year, has fallen frustratingly short of gold at the major events.
Last year, the duo narrowly lost out to Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov in the Grand Prix final, the worlds and the Europeans.
But Krylova and Ovsiannikov are sidelined for the season because of Krylova's chronic back problems. Russia's top couple was Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh, who finished tied for third with Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania.
Italy's Barbara Fusar-Poli and Maurizio Margaglio were second after the compulsories, which count for 20 percent of the overall ice dancing mark. Thursday's original dance program is worth 30 percent, and Friday's free dance the rest.
Wednesday has the first final of the championship, the pair's free program.
Russia's Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov got off to a strong start in the defense of their pairs crown, seizing the lead after the short program on Monday.
Current world champions Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were second.