In the women's competition, American Michelle Kwan, also a reigning three-time world champion, relinquished her Skate Canada crown to Russian Irina Slutskaya.

Yagudin, wearing a spiked epaulette on his shoulder, opened his powerful Gladiator program with a quadruple-triple jump combination. In the next four minutes he reeled off one triple jump after another, eight in total.

For his superlative effort in this ISU Grand Prix contest, Yagudin collected a string of 5.9s to complement the two perfect scores.

Eldredge, skating to the 13th Warrior soundtrack, delivered six triples of his own but touched a hand on the landing of the quadruple toe loop. American skater Matthew Savoie was third.

"I felt really good in warm-up. The ice was still a little bit crunchy but I felt I could do it," said Yagudin, who trains in the United States.

In the women's contest, six judges voted for Slutskaya's saucy Don Quixote performance, while three chose Kwan's elegant Song of the Black Swan.

Japan's Fumie Suguri, who has been battling ankle injuries, claimed the bronze with her best performance since 1998.

"I am going to add more difficulty to my program. I would really like to win Worlds this season, and then the (2002) Olympics," Slutskaya, the world's second-ranked woman, said through an interpreter at a news conference after the competition.

Minutes later, she was on the phone to her mother in Moscow. Slutskaya won $30,000.

Kwan expressed frustration at having committed the same errors here as she did last week in posting a win at Skate America.

"I have to go home now and knock some sense into my head," Kwan said about doubling two planned triple jumps once again. "After Skate America, I worked on the flip and the triple toe, and they weren't there again tonight.

"I think the whole performance needed a little more oomph to it," Kwan conceded.

Grand Prix prize money is $18,000 for second place, and third place is worth $10,000.

The six-event Grand Prix series culminates with the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final, featuring the top six point- getters in each discipline, next February in Tokyo.

With Kwan's second here and last week's win, she has already earned enough points to qualify for the final.

For Slutskaya, though, Skate Canada was her designated non-scoring event. To earn her passage to the final, she must deliver top-notch performances at Grand Prix events later this month in Russia and Japan.

Like Kwan, Eldredge has completed his Grand Prix competitions (he was third at Skate America) and has a good chance to make the Grand Prix final.

Yagudin will compete again in Paris late in November in search of the additional points he needs to advance to the final.