CALGARY, Alberta (AP) – Defending champion Stephane Lambiel shook off a knee injury, an early wake-up call and the post-Olympic blahs to easily win his qualifying group Monday at the World Figure Skating Championships.

Qualifying sessions are unique to worlds, and most of the Group A competitors struggled, including American Evan Lysacek. When Lambiel nailed two quadruple jumps, one in combination, the Swiss skater soared past Lysacek with 160.90 points. Lysacek, on medication for a bacterial infection since the Turin Games, was second with 139.70.

“This was a great program,” said Lambiel, the silver medalist at Turin behind runaway winner Evgeni Plushenko, who is skipping the worlds. “I felt very confident. When I went out to skate, I didn’t have any doubts.”

He skated so well to “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi that Lambiel was able to ignore the pain in his right knee. He has ligament damage and will need a long rest after this event.

“I take tablets and therapy,” he said.

“We do everything to be very healthy on the ice, but after the world championships, my knee will need a break.”

He certainly looked 100 percent fit in hitting six triple jumps. His spins weren’t as crisp as usual, but he clearly was the class of the early group.

The other qualifying session, worth a quarter of the total score, was scheduled for Monday night, with three-time U.S. champion Johnny Weir and Olympic silver medalist Jeffrey Buttle of Canada the headliners.

Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao of China, the Olympic runners-up best remembered for her horrific fall on a throw quad salchow, won the pairs short program ahead of countrymen Pang Qing and Tong Jian. Zhang Dan said she still is bothered by the knee injury sustained when she crashed to the ice with her legs split in Turin – yet somehow was able to resume and win silver.

“I still have a little pain in the knee from the Olympics,” she said, “so we have not been able to train much before these world championships.”

They didn’t look rusty, particularly on their throw triple loop and double twist, which were immense.

U.S. champions Rena Inoue and John Baldwin, the only couple to complete a throw triple axel in competition, did so again, but it didn’t help. They were marked a level lower than usual for their circular steps and also for their combination spin, causing Baldwin to shake his head in wonderment.

“That was the difference tonight, levels,” he said after they finished sixth; they were seventh in Turin. “We’ve been getting the same levels all season, but not here.”

The pairs free skate is Wednesday.

Lambiel wasn’t sure he would be coming to Calgary a week ago after missing three days of practice because of the knee injury. Lysacek also has struggled since Turin, at one point fearing he had pneumonia after coughing up blood.

“I’m still on three antibiotics and trying to get healthy,” said the 2005 world bronze medalist who was fourth at the Olympics. “One day I said, “I’m dying, for real.”‘

He felt awful early in his free skate Monday when he crashed hard on a quadruple toe loop. Lysacek then fell on a triple axel, cut a triple loop to a double and put his hand down on another triple axel.

“I had the wind knocked out of me,” he admitted of the first fall. “My legs kind of went numb on me. It affected the next two minutes for sure.”

But he rallied with a strong second half of his program that included a pair of triple-triples and the usual solid spins, and he did receive full credit for getting around on the quad while being penalized for falling.

“In training, I’ve been doing the quad a lot and it’s been going really well,” Lysacek said. “This one felt good, and I was not braced for the fall.”

For the others, competing so soon after the Olympics was nothing compared to skating so early in the morning.

Ilia Klimkin of Russia, who was third, called the morning session “horrible, to be honest.”

Canada’s Emanuel Sandhu barely could stand during his 41/2-minute routine. Sandhu, the very first skater – at 9:20 a.m., no less – messed up his first three jumps and skated so slowly he appeared to be stopping at times. Still, he wound up sixth in the group.

“I rose at 4 a.m. after getting to bed at 10 p.m,” said Sandhu, the 2003 Grand Prix Finals winner who finished 13th in Turin. “I’m feeling that I seized up going into the axels.”

AP-ES-03-20-06 2021EST