Nov. 3, 1999 1:27 PM Reuters

SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The three men who have exchanged ownership of the world figure skating crown since 1994 will not have a lock on the medals this week at Skate Canada, despite their impressive credentials.

Skate Canada, the second stop of the ISU Grand Prix Series, starts on Thursday, with Russia's reigning double world titlist Alexei Yagudin, Canada's three-time victor Elvis Stojko, and 1996 champion American Todd Eldredge to be challenged by rising stars from Japan and China.

Takeshi Honda, 18, and Chengjiang Li, 21, who finished one-two ahead of Stojko at the inaugural Four Continents Championship last February, will both be featuring quadruple jumps, the must-have jump for today's top contenders.

Honda, now training with Stojko's former coach Doug Leigh, finished sixth at the 1999 worlds.

Yagudin, 19, and Stojko, 27, both executed one quad and botched another on their way to respective gold and bronze medal finishes at Skate America last weekend.

In the Series opener in Colorado Springs, they also watched American Tim Goebel up the ante when he nailed an unprecedented three quads in his silver medal skate.

That benchmark, combined with the possibility that Li will offer up more than one quad in Saint John, has Yagudin and Stojko thinking about raising their own quad quotas.

Eldredge, on the other hand, will not offer up any four revolution jumps in Saint John.

The 28-year-old veteran is back at the Grand Prix after bypassing the series last season. His return, he conceded, was forced by a new International Skating Union rule requiring Olympic-eligible skaters to enter Grand Prix events if they also wish to compete on its less-demanding but lucrative pro-am circuit.

In mid-October Eldredge posted a confidence-boosting victory over Yagudin in the Masters pro-am.

Eldredge never fully mastered the quad and has not practiced one recently for fear of aggravating an injured left ankle, the foot on which he lands all his jumps.

"Am I going there and try to win the event? Not really.... Obviously I want to do well but I won't consider it a bearing of how I stand in the world," said Eldredge who is keeping the door open to compete at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

On the women's side, two-time world champion Michelle Kwan looks like a sure bet for the women's Skate Canada gold.

The UCLA freshman is coming off a convincing win at Skate America where she garnered two perfect 6.0 scores.

In pairs, Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, the reigning two-time world champs, will be heavily favored despite an error-ridden third-place finish at Skate America.

The ice dance competition figures to be a two-way race between Russia's Irina Lobacheva and Ilia Averbukh, and Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas of Lithuania.

Skate Canada, with prize money of $264,000, will be followed by Grand Prix events in Germany, France, Russia and Japan. In January, the top point-getters in the series will compete in the final in Lyon, France.