Lambiel, Kim Win GP Titles

South Korea's Kim Yu-na successfully defended her Grand Prix Final women's figure skating title Saturday, keeping her nerves after a fall — something most of her competitors did not manage.

Two-time world champion Stephane Lambiel won the men's title, adjusting his fiery Flamenco program after a pair of faulty jumps to edge Japan's Daisuke Takahashi.

Among the women, only silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan and bronze winner Carolina Kostner of Italy skated without falls, both capturing season-best scores.

Rising American Caroline Zhang, who was a surprise second coming into the final free skate, fell on a triple lutz and finished fourth in her first major international competition, while U.S. champion Kimmie Meissner fell three times and ended up last in sixth place.

The women's competition came down to the rivalry between the 17-year-old Asian dynamos Kim and Asada that will carry over to the 2008 world championships in Sweden.

''It's good to have a rivalry,'' Asada said. ''We want to continue to have good performances and motivate each other.''

Kim excelled on her execution, skating fast into her big opening triple flip-triple toe, only to fall on her next element, a triple loop. But she made the rest of her jumps, including a difficult double axel-triple toe combination, and earned mostly top ratings for her spins and spirals. Her winning score was 196.83 points.

Asada had the more difficult basic program, including a triple axel-triple toe combination, but her triple-triple combination did not match Kim's. She captured the long program with a beautifully choreographed routine to Chopin, but omitting the jump in the short program had left her in last place and even her season's-best free, earning a 191.59, couldn't catapult her to the gold.

Kostner, the home crowd's favorite, said she managed to quell the jitters that haunted her on the same ice in the 2005 European championships and 2006 Olympics, when she missed the podium both times. This time she skated not only for a season-best 178.93 — but also had fun, basking in Italian adulation.

Lambiel's victory — he scored 239.10 points to beat Takahashi by 0.16 — marks a comeback for the Swiss skater who claimed Olympic silver on the same ice nearly two years ago but then dropped to third in the 2007 worlds.

''I don't do only a program, I do a show. That makes the difference I think,'' Lambiel said. ''When I'm on the ice I want to feel the crowd getting into the program, getting into the motion. I think that, for me, makes a real figure skater.''

As in the short program, American men Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir committed errors — both falling in the free skate — to finish third and fourth, respectively.

Lambiel, the eight-time Swiss champion, had a shaky start on the jumps — losing points on his opening triple axel and quad toe. But he made up for the lost quad-combination points with several improvised combinations late in the program, including a triple-triple-double.

And his Flamenco routine drew gasps from the crowd with dazzling spins — the best in the field — that were tight and fast with continually changing arm and body positions.

Takahashi, the world silver medalist, was the better jumper, completing a flawless quadruple and a strong triple axel. But none of the more expressive elements, the spins and jumps, were deemed to be at the top level, hurting the second performance mark.

''The steps were not good,'' Takahashi conceded. ''But I can still get this result, and this is good for me.''

Russians Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin, skating furiously as a witch and demon to Waltz Masquerade, won the ice dancing ahead of Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, who skated to a selection from Chopin. France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder took the bronze.

European pairs champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany dominated the free skate with powerful throws and jumps to win the pairs with 199.21 points, their season high.

The Chinese pairs both made some errors, with Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao taking silver with 191.20 and Pang Qing and Tong Jian getting bronze with 185.13.