Skaters provide the strange twists

But the second alternate knocking off the two-time men's world champion? Sasha Cohen, unbeaten all fall, tumbling three times in two nights? A United States dance couple on the medal stand?

"This is just crazy," Canada's Emanuel Sandhu declared Saturday night after he'd outpointed Russian favorite Evgeny Plushenko to win the Grand Prix title at the World Arena.

Plushenko, who'd survived a blown combination in the short program, had laid down a stunning free skate with two quadruple jump combinations and a triple axel-double toe. Problem was, the new system only allows two combos, so the third didn't count. "Too stupid," said Alexei Mishin, the champ's longtime coach, who groaned that his pupil had been too good.

When Plushenko doubled his triple axel, then skipped his planned triple salchow, it left him technically lighter than Sandhu and in second place by more than three points.

"I'm surprised, because I didn't skate badly," said Plushenko, who'd won three of the previous four titles. "Actually, I think I skated well."

Sandhu, who staggered out of his only quadruple combination and barely held his triple axel-triple toe, was shocked to find himself atop the pile when the numbers went up.

"As I've experienced before, you never know what is going to happen," said Sandhu, who was only here because Tim Goebel pulled out with chronic skate problems and first alternate Brian Joubert elected to stay home to prepare for the French championships.

US titlist Michael Weiss, woozy and wobbly from a weeklong wrangle with the flu, labored through one of the rockiest routines of his life and still ended up with the bronze medal.

"The easy thing would have been to just pull out," mused Weiss, who fell on his triple axel and triple flip and stumbled out of his triple axel-triple toe combo and triple loop. "But I am glad I stuck with it and competed and came through with a bronze."

The Japanese, who'd never won any medal in any Grand Prix event, were in no mood to be grabby. But when Fumie Suguri realized she'd won the women's gold, she burst into tears.

"People said I always cry if I don't skate well," said Suguri, who hadn't won even an individual Grand Prix event until she took the NHK crown in her own country last month. "Now, I skate well and I cry. Everyone thinks I am Crying Girl."

Even if Cohen had kept her feet, she might have had trouble with Suguri, who'd beaten her at the last two world championships. But once she crashed on her triple toe and triple flip and truncated her triple-lutz combination, it was sayonara for the woman who'd won three of the six circuit events.

That might have been the problem, guessed Cohen, who'd jammed her schedule with all sorts of pro-ams and all-skates and left too little time for rest and practice. "The season is packed," she mused, "and you sort of get sucked into doing these events."

After three months of globetrotting, the elite skaters are just getting warmed up. National championships are next, with a few no-shows here planning to resurface to make their world teams. Michelle Kwan, the five-time global queen, will be in Atlanta next month, chasing her eighth US crown.

So will five-time dance champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev, who sat out the autumn because Lang was burned out. In their absence, though, Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto scored huge international points by grabbing the bronze medal here, the first podium appearance by an American entry in the final. "The sky's the limit, I guess," said Agosto, who'll be stopped short of Olympus, though, unless his Canadian partner can get accelerated citizenship by 2006.

Belbin and Agosto are good for the March world championships in Germany, though, which is the next time this out-of-breath group gets together. The old scoring system will apply there. And if Mr. Plushenko wants to do three combos, the judges may stand up and cheer.