Salt Lake 2002 Men's FS (BBC w/ Robin Cousins) | Yagudin triumphs in classic final

British coverage (commentators: Barry Davies, Robin Cousins) men's free skate (FS) performances from the Salt Lake 2002 (ソルトレーク2002) Winter Games and medals ceremony. Performances featured here marked with (^) below: Rank Name Nation Points SP FS^ 1 Alexei Yagudin Алексей Ягудин Russia 1.5 1 1^ 2 Evgeni Plushenko Евгений Плющенко Russia 4.0 4 2^ 3 Timothy Goebel United States 4.5 3 3^ 4 Takeshi Honda 本田 武史 Japan 5.0 2 4^ 5 Alexander Abt Александр "Саша" Абт Russia 7.5 5 5^ also see (Australian coverage):    • Salt Lake 2002 (Aus. 7) Men's FS | | Yagud...   ---------- [NY Times extract] FIGURE SKATING; There's No Argument Over Yagudin's Gold, Feb. 15, 2002 The showdown with his Russian peer never materialized. The challenge from the American fell short, too. By the time Aleksei Yagudin had taken the ice tonight, neither his countryman, Yevgeny Plushenko, nor the crowd favorite, Timothy Goebel, could approach his splendor and near perfection. Skating to music from ''The Man in the Iron Mask,'' his costume festooned with copper and black nylon, Yagudin carried the crowd at the Salt Lake Ice Center to one of those stirring, emotional journeys that ended with gold in the men's singles. Weeping as four perfect 6.0 scores were awarded for presentation -- the only ones awarded during the men's long program -- the almost-disbelieving Russian stood and clenched his fists. He was also given straight 5.9's for technical merit, and came as close to figure-skating nirvana as anyone over the past week. Plushenko rebounded from a fall in the short program on Tuesday to win the silver medal, while Goebel of the United States was awarded the bronze. Yagudin, 21, who finished fifth in the 1998 Games, was ecstatic with his medal. ''Actually, I began to dream about this four years ago, when I went to Nagano,'' Yagudin said. ''There I finally realized I can do it.'' Yagudin skated last. Goebel had the good fortune to skate third-to-last, but he followed Plushenko, whose flowing blond hair and flair made everyone else look a little less flamboyant. ''He's flashy in his choreography,'' Goebel said of Plushenko. ''He's a great performer. I've skated after him many times, and it's something I've gotten used to.'' He added: ''I feel great. I skated as well I could skate, and I was just so happy to go out there and put it out under pressure. I just really tried tonight to land the jumps.'' Yagudin brought all his talents to bear -- pantomimes, panache, perfectly timed leaps and revolutions. He dropped to his knees and kissed the ice after the performance. He left one jump out of his planned routine -- a triple salchow. He also bobbled slightly coming out of a triple flip, one of the few miscues that separated him from perfection. But he was so good and so polished, no one dared utter a whisper of favoritism after he began blowing kisses to the crowd. --- Takeshi Honda delivered a resounding performance, but the Japanese skater failed to deliver an eye-popping jump, stumbling out of his quadruple toe in the first minute. He did complete six triples and his scores were enough to place him in first as the final four skaters prepared for their routines. ---- #figureskating #フィギュアスケート #eiskunstlauf #фигурноекатание #피겨스케이팅 #pattinaggioartistico #patinageartistique special thanks to Kim!