Ilia Kulik of Russia pulled off the best free program of the season Saturday night to claim an overwhelming victory in the Nagano Olympic men's figure skating competition.

''It was truly the best skating. I'm proud I'm the Olympic champion,'' said Kulik, who nailed a quadruple jump in one of the few error-free performances of the night at the White Ring ice arena in southern Nagano.

The 20-year-old Moscow native, up first in the last group of skaters, opened his free program with a quad toe loop and reeled off eight triples, including one pair in combination and another in sequence, to earn first place votes from all nine judges.

Kulik, who also led after Thursday's short program, received seven 5.9s and two 5.8s out of a possible 6.0 points for presentation while scoring between 5.9s and 5.7s for technical merit.

The world silver medalist in 1996 was one of two skaters who performed a four-revolution jump Saturday night.

The other, 18-year-old Guo Zhengxin from China, became the first athlete ever to land a quadruple-double toe loop combination at an Olympic Games.

The silver medal went to injured three-time world champion Elvis Stojko of Canada, who aggravated a torn groin muscle during the program and grimaced from pain at the end of his program before limping off the ice.

Stojko, the runner-up in the short, was placed third in the free skating but managed to finish with a second straight Olympic silver medal as the other top skaters suffered multiple mistakes.

The 25-year-old Stojko, who was close to becoming the first Canadian ever to win a men's singles title at a winter games, appeared in the medals ceremony in sneakers and skipped the post-competition press conference in order to receive treatment.

France's Philippe Candeloro, ever popular with the female crowd in Japan despite a growing number of Kulik fans, vaulted from fifth to take the bronze medal after his show-like performance as one of the ''Three Musketeers'' gave him the second best free skating scores.

Candeloro, who also finished third at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics four years ago, received one perfect score of 6.0 for presentation from the French judge.

American Todd Eldredge, the 1996 world champion, and young reigning European champion Alexei Yagudin of Russia both fell apart in their skating to end in fourth and fifth places.

Japanese ace Takeshi Honda took a big fall on a triple axel after giving up on trying the quad and settled for 15th while fellow Tohoku high school student Yamato Tamura finished 17th out of 24 competitors.

The figure skating competition continues Sunday with the ice dancing original dance. (Kyodo News)

Final results of figure skating men's singles after the free program Saturday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at White Ring, Nagano:

1. Ilia Kulik, Russia 1.5 points (short program 0.5, free 1.0)

2. Elvis Stojko, Canada 4.0 (1.0, 3.0)

3. Philippe Candeloro, France 4.5 (2.5, 2.0)

4. Todd Eldredge, U.S. 5.5 (1.5, 4.0)

5. Alexei Yagudin, Russia 7.0 (2.0, 5.0)

6. Steven Cousins, Britain 10.0 (3.0, 7.0)

7. Michael Weiss, U.S. 11.5 (5.5, 6.0)

8. Guo Zhengxin, China 14.0 (5.0, 9.0)

9. Michael Tyllesen, Denmark 15.5 (4.5, 11.0)

10. Viacheslav Zagorodniuk, Ukraine 16.0 (8.0, 8.0)

-----

15. Takeshi Honda, Japan 21.0 (9.0, 12.0)

16. Igor Pashkevitch, Azerbaijan 21.5 (6.5, 15.0)

17. Yamato Tamura, Japan 24.5 (7.5, 17.0)

24. Lee Kyu Hyun, South Korea 35.5 (11.5, 24.0)

27. David Liu, Taiwan (13.5, Disqualified)

28. Yourii Litvinov, Kazakstan (14.0, Disqualified)