DORTMUND, Germany (AP) – Michelle Kwan’s reign at the world championships ended Saturday, with Japan’s Shizuka Arakawa the surprising winner over Sasha Cohen.

Arakawa skated a technically bold program packed with difficult jumps to overtake Cohen, who was poised to win her first world title entering the free skate.

Arakawa, her left thigh wrapped because of a muscle strain, executed seven triple jumps, including a combination none of her rivals attempted. She won a perfect 6.0 mark, rarely given for technical merit. The artistry marks for her stirring “Turandot” program were between 5.8 and 5.9.

Kwan, the five-time champion, finished third in her attempt to set a U.S. record with a sixth title. Earlier in the day, a U.S. protest was denied over Kwan’s timing in Friday’s short program. Officials had ruled the program was two seconds too long and she was penalized.

On Saturday, Kwan downgraded one of her jumps from a triple lutz to a double and did not have a triple-triple. Still, she was second in the free skate with a fast, fluid and elegant program skated to “Tosca.”

Judges rewarded her with six 6.0 marks for artistry, giving her a career total of 50 perfect marks in Olympic-eligible competition. She has won nine world championship medals in a row.

Right before Kwan skated, a man wearing skates jumped onto the rink, delaying her performance at least four minutes. After taking off his shirt and donning a tutu, he was forced off the ice by five security guards. Organizers identified him as Ron Bensimhon, a 30-year-old Canadian, and said he was briefly detained and then released.

“I thought he might have a gun … so I got off the ice,” Kwan said.

Cohen, her American rival, failed to land one of her triple jumps and placed second. She flubbed a triple jump and was unsteady on several other jumps and placed second. This was her first medal at the worlds; she has never won an Olympic medal.

“I don’t know why I missed the take off on the triple salchow. I was focused and ready to go for it,” Cohen said. “But being for the first time on the podium at worlds is the first step to bigger things.”

In December, Cohen split with coach Tatiana Tarasova, who took up with Arakawa a couple of weeks ago. Arakawa had trained with Richard Callaghan, who worked with U.S. Olympic champion Tara Lipinski. Cohen now works with Robin Wagner, coach of the most recent U.S. Olympic champion, Sarah Hughes.

“It is a little funny with all the coaching switches going around,” Cohen said. “Everyone has to find what works for them.”

Japanese champion Miki Ando was fourth. Ando is the only woman to execute a quadruple jump in competition. But she failed to pull off the feat, turning her planned quad into a double jump.

Russian women had their worst showing in 10 years. Irina Slutskaya, the world champion in 2002 and Olympic silver medalist, finished ninth and Elena Sokolova was 10th. That means the country will have only two spots for its women at next year’s worlds.

Arakawa is the third Japanese woman to win a world title, following Midori Ito and Yuka Sato. Arakawa, ranked third in Japan, was eighth in last year’s worlds.

She delivered a triple lutz-triple toe-double loop – never before done at a world championship. She then peeled off a triple-triple combination – 14 rotations in the air in the first 30 seconds.

“I’m so happy that I could put every emotion and all the power into my free skating,” she said. “I’m glad that all of my three programs at this worlds worked.”

Kwan was hurt by her penalty in the short program. Referee Jan Hoffmann told U.S. team leaders that Kwan’s program lasted 2 minutes, 42 seconds – two seconds more than the rules allow. The violation requires a 0.1 deduction on each mark.

The International Skating Union said three independent sources confirmed the 2:42 timing.

The performance by the Russian women was a setback for a nation that will host the worlds next year in Moscow. The last world championships in Russia was in St. Petersburg in 1903.

Russia had other reasons to celebrate, however. Russians won gold in three of the four events – Evgeni Plushenko, men’s title; Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin, pairs; and Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, ice dancing.

AP-ES-03-27-04 1402EST