PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Alexei Yagudin didn't have to do a quad toe-loop. But he did. And the confidence-booster powered him through a cleverly choreographed, emotionally skated long program to defend his European Figure Skating title Thursday night.

When the music stopped on his Lawrence of Arabia program, and Yagudin had completed his seventh triple jump, there was little doubt that he had won. He punched the air with both fists, then glided around the rink in undisguised wonderment as the crowd rose to its feet.

"I felt like I was European champion for the second time," Yagudin, 18, said.

When he tried to leave the ice, his coach, Tatiana Tarasova, motioned for him to take another bow. He returned the tribute, falling to his knees and gliding toward her with his arms outstretched.

YAGUDIN LED A RUSSIAN SWEEP of the men's competition. But only the defending European and world champion's program was virtually error-free, leaving Russian champion Yevgeny Plushenko in second and 1994 Olympic champion Alexei Urmanov in third.

A near-perfect free skate helped Alexei Yagudin avenge his loss in the Russian national championships.

A freak stumble by 16-year-old Plushenko going into a triple loop destroyed the spell cast by his opening jump, a rare quad-triple toe combination, the first of the European championships.

But the jinx was only temporary, lasting through a triple-axel touch down and a double lutz, then seemed to break under the exuberance of his fast-paced, rhythmic footwork.

After that, he hit six more triples, including the last loop and a triple lutz-triple toe combination.

"I didn't lose concentration after the quad, but after the fall my back hurt and it didn't work out as planned," Plushenko said.

Urmanov couldn't hold it together after falling on a triple axel early in his "Tango," losing momentum as the program wound to a close with a pair of double salchows, not a triple jump sequence he'd been practicing as a finale.

YAGUDIN WAS CLEARLY FEELING THE PRESSURE of defending his title during Monday's qualifying, when he fell on the first triple axel in the same Lawrence of Arabia program.

But a strong finish in his innovated "Clown" short program, which has strong dance influence from his new coach, restored his confidence.

Yagudin's victory put Russia halfway to a sweep of the championships for the third consecutive year, and made Yagudin a favorite to defend his world title at Helsinki, Finland, from March 21-28.

Russian claimed the first title of the championships Wednesday night when Maria Petrova and Alexei Tikhonov won the final free skate. Three Russian women lead the field going into the short program Friday.

The Russian ice dance pair, Angelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov, secured their lead over French couple Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat during the original dance section Thursday.