| | OSAKA, Japan -- Angela Nikodinov of the United States enchanted the audience with a graceful and solid performance Friday and claimed her first career victory at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships.
Canada's Annie Bellmare, the leader in Thursday's short program, fell twice and landed shakily on a third jump, slipping to third place.
The silver medal went to another American, Stacey Pensgen, who rallied past Bellmare by landing seven jumps cleanly, three in triple-double combinations.
| |  | | | Angela Nikodinov won her first career victory at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Japan. |
"I am very excited right now. This is my first senior international competition that I won," Nikodinov said. "I didn't skate my personal best but I am pleased."
She skated to music from the movie "The Mummy."
Nikodinov's previous best was second at the Keri Lotion FS Classic Pro-Am in 1998.
Bellemare, who was third at the Canadian Nationals, said she was "stressed out" because she was first after the short program for the first time.
In the men's singles Saturday and Sunday, three-time world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada performed a strong, clean free program Sunday, surging past American Todd Eldredge and two others to the championship.
Stojko, the bronze medalist in the inaugural Four Continents last year in Canada, presented a near perfect program skating to music from "The Mummy."
Eldredge, the leader in the short program, fell on an attempted quadruple jump at the outset, watered down three other jumps and finished fourth.
Li Chengjiang of China, last year's silver medalist, jumped a quad in a combination with a double toe loop and skated a solid program, although not as artistic as Stojko's. Li again finished second.
He was tied with Stojko at the same factored placements of 3.0, but six of nine judges placed the Canadian first, with a seventh favoring Li.
One judge placed Eldredge first, while another marked Zhang Min of China on top.
Zhang, the 1994 Asian champion, jumped two quads, one in a combination with a triple toe loop and the other touching the ice while landing, to win the bronze medal.
"The quad is a hard jump, of course, and there is pressure on it," said Eldredge, a former world champion and a five-time U.S. champion. "I really wanted to have a good skate. I'll work on the consistency of the quad in summer to have it next season."
The only flaw by Stojko was a shaky landing on a quad toe loop-triple toe loop combination.
"Everything except for the quad - just a little step out - I felt more solid than at nationals," he said. "It's just getting the quad down. I've been having a little bit of trouble with it this week, not being able to nail it."
The last two seasons, Stojko had the lingering effects of a groin injury from the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, in which he won the silver.
Li said his skating was not as good as he hoped.
Defending champion Takeshi Honda of host Japan had two shaky jumps and wound up in fifth.
Canadian and American skaters dominated in the five-day meet at Osaka Pool.
Besides Stojko and Nikiodinov, winners included Jamie Sale and David Pelletier of Canada in the Pairs event, and Americans Naomi Lang and Peter Tchernyshev in ice dancing.
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