WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: IT'S BETTER TO BE GREAT WHEN LATE : KWAN SLEEPS IN, THEN WINS QUALIFYING GROUP AT WORLDS.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

Sleeping late didn't mean slacking off for Michelle Kwan.

She stayed in bed until almost the last minute Wednesday, then handily won her qualifying round at the World Figure Skating Championships with a solid and graceful program.

In the pairs final, Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikhuralidze lost their grace for a moment when she fell, but the couple went on to retain their title.

Kwan came down with a cold while flying to Finland. She was sluggish and needed antibiotics, making it hard to get out of bed.

``I've been sleeping all morning,'' she said, adding she got up 1 hour, 20 minutes before she had to take the ice.

She did only a triple-double combination and cut a triple lutz to a double. She decided at the last minute on the double lutz because she was a bit tired.

``I think I could have been a little tougher out there,'' she said.

Maria Butyrskaya of Russia, regarded as Kwan's closest challenger for the title, proved she was tough. She took a hard fall early in the program and stumbled on the next couple of jumps. But she recovered strongly and ended up first despite a well-executed turn from Tatiana Malinina of Uzbekistan.

Malinina hit her jumps more reliably than Butyrskaya, but her use of exaggerated, cartoonish arm positions brings her unenthusiastic scores from some judges.

The qualification round counts for 20 percent of the final score, meaning Kwan and Butyrskaya go into Friday's short program evenly matched.

Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze retained their title despite Berezhnaya's fall coming out of a double axel.

``I just made a mistake on it. There was a lot of pressure because these are the world championships,'' Berezhnya said.

In second place were China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo. They earned the loudest ovation with a combination of strength and panache that included a dramatic delayed triple twist. But the straight 5.9s the Russians got for presentation pushed them above the Chinese.

``It was the best we ever skated,'' Zhao said. ``We are a bit sad that we didn't win tonight.''

It was the first pairs medal in the worlds for China, and also for Poland, whose Dorota Zagorska and Marius Siudek took the bronze.

In Kwan's qualifying group, France's Vanessa Gusmeroli and Russia's Viktoria Volchkova are next. Sarah Hughes of the United was in fourth place, unlikely to be a medal contender but indeed impressive from someone just 13. Russia's Julia Soldotova was third in the other qualifying group.

With Butyrskaya and Malinina in good form, Kwan and coach Frank Carroll are considering skipping practice today so there would be more chance to rest.

``We need the time,'' Carroll said. ``We plan to skate tougher . . . we have some decisions to make.''

Pairs: On the surface it seemed history was repeating itself: a Russian pair winning the world figure skating title for the 28th time in 34 years. This time, however, history was made, as Chinese and Polish pairs won medals for the first time in the 91 years the event has been contested at worlds.

As it turned out, seven of the nine judges were about the only people at Hartwall Arena on Wednesday night who thought Bereznaia and Sikharulidze should have won a second straight title even though she fell on a double axel jump in the free skate.

The crowd was dazzled by the height and the distance of the throws and twists performed by Xue and Hongbo of China, who have improved from 11th to second in the past two years.

The U.S., meanwhile, had its worst pairs showing since 1984, with Kyoko Ina-John Zimmerman placing ninth and national champions Danielle and Steve Hartsell, 10th.

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PHOTO Michelle Kwan won her qualifying round during the first day of the World Figure Skating Championships.

Dusan Vranic/Associated Press