Near-perfect Yagudin makes history

By Gennady Fyodorov

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Alexei Yagudin captured the men's figure skating title on Thursday with a near flawless performance but struggled to come to terms with the piece of Olympic history he had made in the process.

The 21-year-old Russian became the first individual skater in the history of Winter Games to receive more than two perfect marks when he was awarded 6.0 by four out of the nine judges for his artistic impression in the free programme.

``I was like in a fog when they told me that I was the only guy who got so many 6.0s in the Olympic Games,'' he said.

Yagudin, who left his former coach Alexei Mishin to join Tatyana Tarasova after winning his first of three consecutive world titles in 1998, gave much of the credit for his gold-medal performance to Tarasova.

``I was fortunate to have such a nice coach like Tatyana Tarasova, who really helped me and I became not just a jumper but also an artist on the ice,'' he said.

Before stepping out on Thursday, Yagudin asked Tarasova if he should skate the most difficult of his programmes.

``She told me that it would be better for me to try two quads (quadruple jumps),'' he said.

``So I went out and for the first time in my life I did this combination at the beginning, then I did the second quad and then I realised that in less than five minutes I would be wearing the gold medal around my neck.''

Mishin, the champion's former mentor, told a news conference he was proud to have two skaters on the Olympic podium.

``It's hard to divide medals, but I'm really proud to have two Russian skaters and my two pupils, one current (Yevgeny Plushenko) and one former, winning silver and gold,'' said Mishin.

But Yagudin cut him short.

``Actually I began working with Tatyana four years ago and nobody believed then that I could be on the podium again. In my opinion she has changed me and that's why I got so many 6.0s and I guess the gold medal just belongs to me and Tatyana,'' he said.

Yagudin earned praise as being one of the best of all time from American coach Frank Carroll, who has taught many of the world's top skaters for the last two decades.

``Anybody who gets those 6.0s has proved that they are great artistic skaters and Alexei has combined the two things that are very attractive in men's skating - the athleticism and artistry,'' said Carroll, coach of bronze medalist Timothy Goebel.

``I think he is a wonderful skater.''