Plushenko steals the show

Plushenko collapsed to the ice exhausted after he had shrugged off his illness woes with a flawless display to retain his crown ahead of world champion Stephane Lambiel and 2004 gold medallist Brian Joubert.

"I skated pretty good today but after the third minute I was completely dead," Plushenko, whose participation had been in doubt after he was laid low with 'flu this week, told reporters.

"It was so hard for me to compete today as I'm still not well. I felt like a fish out of water as I couldn't breathe.

"It was the hardest championships of my life."

The 23-year-old's triumph by 16.46 points completed a Russian sweep of all four titles at the championships for the second year running and they will be firm favourites to repeat the feat at next month's Turin Olympics.

Irina Slutskaya secured a record seventh women's crown, Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin picked up their fifth consecutive pairs gold medal, while Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov climbed on top of the podium in Lyon following the ice dance contest.

The last competitor to take to the ice, Plushenko brought a roaring crowd to their feet with a display full of drama and daring skills.

He nailed each one of 11 jumps, including a quadruple and five in combination, to surpass Lambiel with a score of 245.33.

The final had been expected to be a showdown between Plushenko and local favourite Joubert after the duo had led the short programme.

But Joubert's hopes of repeating his success from two years ago in front of his home fans faded away just 15 seconds into his Lord of the Dance performance when he fell on his opening quadruple toeloop.

Two further stumbled landings only added to his misery and he slipped a place to third with 222.95.

"I'm not so happy with my programme because I made some mistakes," Joubert, who won silver 12 months ago, told reporters. "I don't know why the first mistake happened."

With Plushenko constantly deviating from his expected programme, it was difficult to keep track of his mesmerising choreography set to the soundtrack of the Godfather.

He opened with a soaring quadruple toeloop and followed it by triple-triple-double combination.

After ending his four-minute performance with a fast-paced spin, Plushenko did not have to wait for the judges score to flash up to know that he had just clinched his fifth title in seven years.

It also gave Russia a 10th men's title in 12 years.

Lambiel claimed Switzerland's first European medal in the event for 58 years when he clinched silver with a combined score of 228.87.

Already trailing Plushenko by 8.07 points from the opening round, he did not help his cause with two snatched landings and bizarrely lost his footing twice during a straight line step sequence.

"I wasn't concentrating till the end but it's good that it happened today and not in Torino," Lambiel, who showed off a striking zebra-print costume for his Four Seasons performance, told reporters.

"It was good preparation for Torino because I must concentrate till the end as every point is important under the new scoring system.

"I know I can be the champion and will work very hard to be the Olympic champion.