(March 25, 2003)
Welcome to quad country!

The top six men were evenly matched in content, with Canadian Emanuel Sandhu, who finished in fifth-place, and his teammate, Jeffrey Buttle, who placed sixth, very much in the hunt in the Men's Qualifying A event yesterday afternoon at the MCI Centre.

Topping the group was a faultless Evgeni Plushenko, of Russia, who opened his program with a quadruple toe loop-triple toe loop-triple loop combination. Like a man on a mission, he never looked back.

American Timothy Goebel was second, and was the only skater who landed two quadruple jumps yesterday.

Newcomer Stephane Lambiel, of Switzerland, was third with a dynamic performance. He also completed a quadruple jump in combination.

Placing fourth in the group was China's Chengjiang Li, who also contributed to the quad count.

Sandhu and Buttle, missing only the quad from their considerable repertoire, showed the musicality, style and skating quality that has become Canada's trademark.

The top-three finishers in the Men's qualifying B group were Michael Weiss, of the Unites States, Japan's Takeshi Honda, and Ryan Jahnke, also from the United States.

The qualifying rounds were a great start to what promises to be a phenomenal Men's event at the 2003 World Championships!