Plushenko wins Russian men's skating title

 MOSCOW (AP) -- Yevgeny Plushenko landed seven triple jumps Wednesday to win the Russian Figure Skating Championships, beating several rivals who failed to complete quadruple jumps.
 The 16-year-old, who was world junior champion last year, failed to execute a quad that opened his program, but was perfect on a succession of triples.
 He completed his routine with a triple salchow and got mostly 5.8s from the judges for both technical merit and artistic presentation, allowing him to move up from third place after the short program.
 Plushenko already has qualified for the Grand Prix finals that will be held in his hometown of St. Petersburg in March.
 World champion Alexei Yagudin finished second, performing seven triples, but also failing on a quad.
 Alexei Urmanov, first after the short program, started his final program with a quad, but missed the landing and never fully recovered. He finished third.
 Urmanov, the 1994 Olympic champion, missed all of last season with a groin injury, but he made his return this season a rewarding one with several strong performances. He won the Cup of Russia, finished second at the Goodwill Games and third at Skate America.
 In the pairs competition, Olympic silver medalists Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze used a slow but solid routine to win their first national title. Ice dance world champions Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov won with a new routine, which used only drums and percussion instruments.