Sato uses perfection to beat Yamaguchi

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Kristi Yamaguchi's curtain call was upstaged by Yuka Sato's string of 10.0s, while the Average White Band was anything but average for Ilia Kulik.

Sato earned a full set of perfect marks for artistic impression to win the women's title Saturday night at the professional Skaters' Championship.

Sato, skating her familiar routine to "The Color of Roses," landed the jump that Yamaguchi didn't, the triple loop, plus two other triples to go along with tight spins in a flawless performance that also earned three 10.0s for technical merit.

"I feel this was the best moment of my career," Sato said, "a lifetime performance for me."

Kulik was almost as good, winning the men's event with five 10.0s for his lively routine to the AWB's "Pick Up the Pieces." He performed his standard repertoire of textbook triple jumps, but his footwork, showmanship and rapport with the crowd have improved markedly since he won the gold medal in the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

"I try to connect more after three years of Stars on Ice," Kulik said. "Three years watching guys do that, I try finally to get a kick out of it. It's so fun and so much more energy. Sixty-shows on the road -- you've got to try to get some energy back and keep going."

Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev won the pairs. Their routine, based on "The Matrix," was almost an innovative as the movie, with daring moves involving a puppet-string apparatus.

Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov won the dance.

Sato won this event last year, when it was called the World Professional Figure Skating Championship. This year, she skated in two events for the first time, teaming with husband Jason Dungjen to finish second in the pairs.

"My legs are very tired," Sato said. "But I enjoyed it a lot, and it was great I was able to skate in both events."

Yamaguchi's last head-to-head competition came when she won here in 1997, and this might have been her last one ever. She skated to "Gold", a fitting farewell piece that begins with the lyric, "I wonder when all is done if anyone heard my voice," and ends with, "Here in my own two hands, I once held the gold."

Asked if she'd be back, Yamaguchi said: "Who knows? Four years ago, I said it would be my last time. I'm taking next year off and trying to focus on my personal life a little more. Maybe in 10 years I'll come back."

Noting that many of her peers are now judges, she said she looked at the panel and thought: "Maybe next year, that'll be me."

The 1992 Olympic champion fell on the triple loop, the only fall by any skater the entire evening, although the rest of her program was strong enough to land her second place.

Lucinda Ruh was third, followed by Josee Chouinard and Nicole Bobek.

Kulik edged Kurt Browning, who got three 10.0s and dazzled the crowd again with his amazing footwork, much of it after the music had stopped. Browning is one of the few professional skaters that still takes winning and losing seriously, and he mocked banging his head into the wall talking about his second-place finish.

"I'm sitting there going, 'loser.' I don't how you beat Ilia on a night like this," Browning said. "But at the same time, I didn't give my best."

Brian Orser was third, followed by Steven Cousins and Philippe Candeloro, who performed the American debut of a routine to "George of the Jungle," using a man in the monkey suit as a prop. Candeloro said the man was his agent.

"He's gets paid every time I do a competition or an exhibition," Candeloro said, "so I let him do this work."

In the pairs, Kazakova was dressed as a puppet in pink, and Dmitrie was the master in black as they skated to "The Matrix" soundtrack.

Dmitriev carried Kazakova onto the ice on his shoulder, then used the string apparatus to sling her around the ice in several breathtaking moves. The routine was created this summer, and this was its debut in a competitive event.

"It's something new for us. It's an unusual way for us," Dmitriev said. "It's fun."

Krylova and Ovsiannikov won the dance with a routine to "Last of the Mohicans." Krylova began dressed as an Indian chief, and the program ended with her rescuing him from being burned at the stake.

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