MARSEILLE, France (AP) Evgenia Medvedeva stumbled on her first jump and then nailed all the others as she successfully defended her title at the Grand Prix Final on Saturday.
The 17-year-old Russian could afford to make a mistake, however, having set a world record in the short program.
When she came onto the ice for her free skate, the cheers were still echoing around the Palais Omnisports in Marseille following a clinical and elegant performance from Japan's Satoko Miyahara to the sounds of Gustav Holst's ''The Planets.''
Medvedeva appeared a little nervous.
It showed as she stumbled backward on the ice after landing awkwardly on a triple flip, triple toe loop.
She glared at the ice, giving it a look of disdain.
But the blip seemed to spur her on, and her triple lutz was perfect, as were the triple loop and triple flip.
Gaining in confidence, the world champion executed a triple salchow-triple toe loop and then a double axel as if going through her training drills.
When her winning score of 227.66 points came in, she wiped her brow. She need not have, because the scores did not end up close.
Miyahara scored 218.33 as she finished runner-up for a second time.
Anna Pogorilya made it two Russian women on the podium, rising up to third on 216.47.
The individual men concluded later Saturday, with Japan's Yuzuru Hanyu favorite to defend his title after dominating the short.
He is chasing a fourth straight Final win.
Earlier, former Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the ice dance, clinching the elusive title for the first time in their comeback year.
Leading overnight after the short program, the Canadians were in a relaxed mood, chatting and smiling as they came on the ice for the free.
They won comfortably, scoring a total of 197.22 points to beat French pair Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron by more than four points (192.81).
World silver medalists Maia and Alex Shibutani, who are brother and sister, were second overnight but the Americans dropped to third with 189.60.
Virtue and Moir, who are also two-time world champions, returned to competitive skating this year after two years away.
They won gold at the 2010 Games on home ice in Vancouver, and took silver two years ago at the Sochi Games in Russia behind Americans Merly Davis and Charlie White.
But they had never won at the Final before, placing second in three consecutive years to Davis and White from 2012-14.
Taking a break and coming back refreshed, there was no stopping them this time.
As their free dance ended, they hugged in relief, perhaps confident in the knowledge that they had easily done enough.
''(We were) relieved for a couple of reasons. We never won it and people have reminded us that a couple of times this week,'' Moir said. ''Our goal was just to be in the mix and it's special to win this title. This is not something we expected.''
The expectation level will go up now, however, as rivals know they are back in business.
''We have a huge target on our backs,'' Moir said. ''Our workload just multiplied by 10.''
As the scores came in, Moir dropped his head onto Virtue's shoulder and smiled.
To celebrate, they gleefully brandished the Canadian flag on a celebratory lap.
''The crowd was fabulous and there was a great energy in the building,'' Virtue said.
