Lambiel stripes gold

Four turns before Lambiel, Frenchman Joubert, skating to the theme song of The Matrix, had finished a program that awarded him a personal best of 156.47 points on the free skating.

The Frenchman opened with a quadruple toe loop, triple toe loop combination and added six more triples and quadruple Salchow for good measure earning a personal best score of 270.83 points from the judges and standing ovation from the crowd.

Joubert grabbed the top of the leaderboard by more than 15 points.

Lambiel knew that the only to keep his title would be to skate a flawless program. And that is what he came close to doing. Lambiel went on to the ice with all the confidence of a former champion and showed that he still has it in him to be among the best.

"I only thought about what I needed to do for my program," said Lambiel, "I did not think about what Brian had done."

The last skater onto the Saddledome ice and skating to the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, Lambiel produced a pressure-packed error-free skate that earned him top marks and an overall winning total of 274.22, the 21-year-old Swiss adding a second world championship title to the Olympic silver medal he won in Turin.

"This has been the best season of my life," said Lambiel. "And Calgary has been a very nice competition."

Lambiel nearly did not come to Calgary because of a sore knee. "I made the decision to come here just 10 days ago," said Lambiel. "It was very important for me to come here because the 2010 Winter Olympics will be in Vancouver.

The Swiss said that he would take some time off for the rest of the season to nurse his knee. "It has also been a difficult season," he said.

All was not lost for Joubert on the other hand. His sixth place finish at Turin was a big disappointment for the young man that all of France had bet on, and a world second place was a relief.

"It's a real pleasure," said Joubert. "It was really hard after Turin. My entourage turned against me and I was very isolated for some time. And I think it worked.

Third place went to American Evan Lysacek for the second year in a row. In seventh place after the short program, he held on to his spot despite the likes of Nobunari Oda, who did not follow up on his performance in the short program and Jeffrey Buttle who was unable to fulfil the expectations of the Canadian fans present to cheer him on.

Lysacek's team-mate Johnny Weir did not fair so well however. He fell on a jump near the end of his program and did not get up for a few seconds, while he took in the full meaning of what had just happened. Until his fall, Weir was set for a spot on the podium after the failure of the Canadian duo, Buttle and Sandhu, to impress the judges.

JOIN THE DEBATE: Ask Eurosport commentators Chris and Simon all of your questions!