Evgeni Plushenko wins Grand Prix gold at Rostelecom Cup after layoff; American Weir is 4th

Plushenko wins Grand Prix; Weir finishes 4th

MOSCOW — Evgeni Plushenko of Russia won gold at the Rostelecom Cup on Saturday after a soaring free skate in his first international event since becoming Olympic champion at the 2006 Turin Games.

Miki Ando of Japan prevailed in the women’s event, while Ashley Wagner of the United States rose from fifth after the short program to take silver. Alena Leonova of Russia, the world juniors champion, took bronze for her first Grand Prix medal.

Plushenko performed only one quad, limited by his old standards, but combined it with a triple toeloop to open his program with unquestionable brio.

Takahiko Kozuka of Japan took silver and Artem Borodulin of Russia won bronze, his first Grand Prix medal. American Johnny Weir had an error-filled program that dropped him to sixth place in the free skate and fourth overall.

Weir was in trouble from the opening seconds, when his planned toeloop was replaced with a triple flip. He doubled two subsequent triple axels and ended the program by taking many seconds to raise himself from a kneeling position.

Meryl Davis and Charlie White of the United States won gold in ice dancing. Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte of Italy won the silver, followed by Ekaterina Rubleva and Ivan Shefer of Russia.

The 26-year-old Plushenko chose tango music for his flirtatious and challenging stop-start moves in the step sequences, playing up the confidence he projects on the ice. But he wasn’t inclined to let overconfidence undermine his discipline.

“I have to work on my spins, work on my steps,” he said.

Plushenko, who’s had chronic knee problems, returned to figure skating to help Russia turn around its plummeting fortunes in the sport.

Kozuka, whose own quad was downgraded after he stepped out of it, was pleased with his program but felt Plushenko’s dominance early.

“The moment he took the ice, I knew there was a real champion in front of me,” said the 20-year Kozuka, whose free program to an electric guitar concerto showed impressive speed and tight-sit spins.

Borodulin was close behind Weir going into the free skate and admitted that the possibility of beating the American, who has numerous fans in Russia, was daunting.

Borodulin opened with a solid triple axel-triple toe combo, then fell on a triple axel. But he recovered and included a triple-double-double cascade.

Brandon Mroz of the United States was fourth in the free skate and finished seventh overall.

Ando fell on a double axel-triple toe combination, but landed a triple-double-double. She said her Cleopatra-themed program was inspired by the complexities of the empress.

“I wanted to show the audience the queen and the normal woman,” she said.

Wagner mostly aimed for clean and elegant jumps rather than harder combinations, and she did only the first part of a planned triple salchow-double axel.

“We planned to come into this skating strong and see what happened from there,” she said.

Julia Sebestyen, first after the short program, fell to sixth-place overall.

Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China won the pairs title.

Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov of Russia took silver, while Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker of the United States held on for bronze despite two falls.

The Rostelecom Cup is the second of six International Skating Union Grand Prix stages.