Plushenko wins fifth title at Europeans
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-22 14:08

As soon as Plushenko finished the routine, he went flat on his back on the ice to rest.

Still, he was by far the best.

The Russian scored 245.33 points, followed by Lambiel with 228.87 and Joubert with 222.95.

Lambiel paid tribute to the winner.

Yevgeny Plushenko of Russia performs to win the gold medal during the men free skating program of the European Figure Skating Championships at the Palais des Sports ice rink in Lyon January 21, 2006. [Reuters]

"Plushenko was the best today. Against him I can't make any errors," the Swiss said.
Lambiel, in a routine to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" had to step out of a triple jump and put a hand down on a second quad. He also stumbled twice in his footwork down the ice.

"I was very relaxed in my program and I didn't concentrate enough," the Swiss said.
But he managed a triple axel at the start. He fell on that in Friday's short program.
"I believed in my triple axel," he said. "It was important to land the triple axel today. In my mind I don't have any problems with this jump. I was very confident and I had no doubt of landing the axel."

Joubert missed his triple axel twice. He landed a quad but slipped right after it.
"I did a stupid mistake on the quad," Joubert said. "It was good jump and then I relaxed too much.

"Now is not the time to be 100 percent," Joubert added.

The competition ended with Russians getting six of the 12 medals.

Irina Slutskaya won the women's title for record seventh time to better the record she shared with Sonja Henie and Katarina Witt. Now Slutskaya heads to Turin hoping to get Olympic gold like they did.

Elena Sokolova came in second and showed the form that made her the 2003 world silver medalist behind Michelle Kwan

Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov won the ice dance although the top cheers went to veterans Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania. At 34 and 35 they were the oldest of the competition and had not been to a major championship since 2002.

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin took the pairs for the fifth straight year. For the second year in a row, Totmianina was hospitalized earlier in the season but came back to take the title.