Originally published Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Winter Sports | Brian Joubert, Carolina Kostner earn Cup of Russia titles

Brian Joubert's sensational short program gave him such a big lead that the Frenchman won the Cup of Russia even with a less-than-stellar...

By The Associated Press

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MOSCOW — Brian Joubert's sensational short program gave him such a big lead that the Frenchman won the Cup of Russia even with a less-than-stellar free skate Saturday.

Carolina Kostner of Italy beat Fumie Suguri of Japan with an elegant free skate to earn the women's title, and China's Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao won the pairs.

Joubert had the Megasport arena crowd on its feet with a near-perfect short program Friday, but it was clear early the former world champion would not be able to duplicate that effort. He fell on his first quadruple-jump attempt.

"I knew before my free program that I was not ready physically," Joubert said. "Technically, I'm not perfect. But I wanted to give my best tonight. I wanted to win the competition, so that's good."

Joubert won despite being fourth in the free skate. Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic placed second, and Alban Preaubert of France was third.

Americans Jeremy Abbott and Adam Rippon were fourth and fifth, respectively.

Earlier, Suguri's mistakes allowed American Rachael Flatt to take the silver medal after posting the session's top technical score. Suguri finished third after two-footing a triple salchow and not attempting other planned elements.

Meanwhile, Kostner landed the triple-triple jump combination she had botched in the short program.

Notes

• Janne Korpi of Finland won a Big Air snowboarding World Cup event in Stockholm, Sweden.

• Havard Bokko of Norway won the 1,500-meter race and Claudia Pechstein of Germany dominated the 5,000 in Moscow to win their first World Cup speedskating races of the season.

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