Yu-Na Kim
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PARIS (AFP) - The 16-year-old Kim held her lead from the short programme to take gold ahead of Japan's Miki Ando with world champion Kimmie Meissner of the United States taking bronze.

The first skater from Korea to win an ISU championship at the 2006 world juniors, Kim delighted the audience at the Bercy rink with her elegant performance to Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.

She fell on her final jump, a double axel, after two-footing her last triple but did not suffer as her leading rivals also tumbled.

A technically tough programme with six triples and a triple-triple combination gave her a personal best free skating score of 119.32.

Brian Joubert
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"I was so nervous. I was happy to win after making such a big mistake," said Kim, who scored 184.54 overall from the two rounds with Ando achieving 174.44 and Meissner 158.03.

After taking bronze in Skate Canada, Kim secures a spot in the elite ISU Grand Prix final in St. Petersburg, Russia next month, along with Skate America winner Ando, with Meissner still uncertain after finishing second in Skate America.

Ando, meanwhile, had to work hard after falling on her opening triple lutz.

But the 18-year-old nailed five triples including three in combination in her programme to Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

"I was more relaxed at Skate America, it was the first competition of the season, but here I was really thinking about making it to the final. I was more nervous and that made it difficult," said Ando.

Meissner, 17, fell attempting a triple axel in her Flamenco routine but hit five other triples to move up from fourth ahead of Skate Canada winner Joannie Rochette, who looks set to miss the Grand Prix final after a disastrous free skate.

Alban Preaubert
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Earlier two-time world silver medallist Joubert opened his season by claiming his first Grand Prix win in two years.

The 22-year-old had been tipped as a potential challenger of Yevgeny Plushenko for Olympic gold after beating the Russian for the 2004 European title.

But after a turbulent two years and numerous coaching changes Joubert finished just sixth at the Turin Games.

With a new coach, he unveiled his programme "Appocalyptica" which included two quadruple jumps to take the Paris gold for the first time ahead of compatriot Alban Preaubert.

Russia's Sergei Dobrin also landed two quads to take the bronze.

"I would have been very upset if I'd finished second again," said Joubert, runner-up in the past two editions.

Albena Denkova(L) and Maxim Staviski
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Preaubert, 21, performed a comic routine to Mike Hamer, Swing Kids and The Mask to add silver to the bronze he won in Skate America, and put himself in line for a place in next month's Grand Prix final.

Joubert will be looking to secure his spot next weekend in the Cup of Russia.

In pairs, veterans Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov opened their season by taking gold ahead of Skate America winners Rena Inoue and John Baldwin of the United States and fellow Russians Julia Obertas and Sergei Slavnov.

Petrova, 28, and 35-year-old Tikhonov, the 2000 world champions, have decided to continue this season despite announcing their retirement after taking bronze at worlds.

Despite a point deduction for finishing after the music to Moonlight Sonata, they gave the only clean skate of the top three with Inoue, Baldwin and Obertas all falling during their programmes.

Ice dance world champions Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski of Bulgaria are into the Grand Prix final after winning their second gold after Skate America.

France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder won silver.

The final two events in the six-leg Grand Prix series are the Cup of Russia in Moscow next weekend and the NHK Trophy in Nagano, Japan later this month.

©AFP