LYON, France, Jan. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Russian figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko gained Saturday his fifth men's title at the European championships here.

Silver medallist Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland (L), gold medallist Yevgeny Plushenko of Russia (C) and bronze medallist Brian Joubert pose after the podium ceremony of the men skating program. (Xinhua/Reuters)

    Plushenko collapsed to the ice for several seconds after he had finished his flawless free program display.

    "It was very hard for me to skate today. I'm not yet completely healthy," he said.

    The Russian had a bad cough and could't breathe at all after the third minute.

    "It was so hard, that I thought I couldn't go on that I'll stop after the circular footwork. But I'm happy that I pulled through, that I did the triple flip at the end, I did a quite good footwork," he said at a news conference after the performance.

    "I was tired, and I had a lot of emotions, a lot of nervousness, everybody was blowing there horns, clapping for the French skaters and the Swiss (Lambiel) skater.

    "I'm happy that they didn't forget about me and that the audience was with me, too. I think this was my hardest European Championship," said the 23-year-old champion.

Gold medallist Yevgeny Plushenko of Russia (Xinhua/Reuters)

    He surpassed with a score of 245.33 the Swiss Stephane Lambiel (228.87 points) and the French Brian Joubert (222.95 points) who medaled respectively silver and bronze.

    Plushenko said he was now preparing for the coming Turin Olympics at next month.

    His coach Alexei Mishin told Xinhua that Plushenko himself will be his biggest rival in the Turin Olympics, among several others especially from China, the United States and Canada.

    In the 2006 European championships, Russia obtained all the four titles.

    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. Enditem