MOSCOW — Brian Joubert's sensational short program gave him such a big lead, he won the Cup of Russia even with a less-than-stellar free skate.
Carolina Kostner topped error-strewn Fumie Suguri with an elegant free skate to win the women's title Saturday, and China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao hung on to win the pairs. In the ice dance, local favorites Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin maintained their narrow lead after the original dance.
Joubert had the Megasport arena crowd on its feet with a near-perfect short program Friday, dazzling the fans with powerful jumps and intricate steps to a rapid barrage of congas and bongos. But it was clear right away the former world champion would not be able to duplicate that effort, as he fell on his first quadruple jump attempt.
"I knew before my free program that I was not ready physically. Technically I'm not perfect. But I wanted to give my best tonight. I wanted to win the competition, so that's good," Joubert said.
KORPI WINS SNOWBOARDING EVENT: At Stockholm, Sweden, Janne Korpi of Finland won a Big Air snowboarding World Cup event on Saturday to move into third place in the overall standings.
Chris Sorman of Sweden finished second at Olympic Stadium and Seppe Smits of Belgium was third.
SWEDES WIN CROSS-COUNTRY OPENER: At Gallivare, Sweden, Marcus Hellner and Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won their first World Cup cross-country ski titles on Saturday.
Hellner edged Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy by 1.4 seconds in the 15-kilometer freestyle, while Kalla cruised past Marit Bjorgen of Norway by 24.4 seconds in the 10k freestyle.
Hellner earned his first World Cup title in 32:35.2.
BOKKO, PECHSTEIN WIN AT SPEEDSKATING WORLD CUP: At Moscow, Havard Bokko won the 1,500-meter race and Claudia Pechstein dominated the 5,000 Saturday to win their first World Cup races this season.
Bokko, second to Sven Kramer in the World Cup overall last season, finished in 1 minute, 45.46 seconds. The Norwegian was 0.35 seconds ahead of Mark Tuitert of the Netherlands. Enrico Fabris, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist, was third.
Tuitert leads the World Cup standings with 210 points after three races, five ahead of Bokko. Erben Wennemars is third with 190.