NAGANO, Japan -- Jeffrey Buttle of Sudbury, Ont., is making the best of second chances. Originally not named to Canada's world or Olympic teams, he won the Four Continents title in South Korea in January when Elvis Stojko chose to bypass the event and Emmanuel Sandhu was forced out by injury.

Now with Stojko out of competition and Sandhu back home recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, Buttle is at the world figure skating championships that started Monday at the site of the 1998 Olympics.

He made a good debut in the competition by completing seven triple jumps and finishing fourth in a tough qualifying group behind two American champions and a Chinese skater who was sixth in the worlds last year.

American Tim Goebel, the Olympic bronze medallist, won the group with Michael Weiss second. Li Chengiang was third.

Buttle started out with a triple flip-triple toe loop combination then went on from there to do five more triples. Although some were shaky, he still had scores as high as 5.7 although more were in the 5.3 to 5.5 range.

"There's always room for improvement but today was a great place to start," Buttle said.

The qualifications count for 20 per cent with the Tuesday short program worth 30 per cent and the free program Thursday worth the remaining half.

Buttle finished third at the Canadian championships and did not meet qualifying criteria for the Olympics.

Sandhu had to withdraw in Salt Lake City and could not make it to the worlds, although Buttle didn't know until the end of February he would go. So, he didn't go full tilt in practices.

"It was hard to do a full run-through when you are not even sure if you are going to the competition," he said.

Then he was named to the team and became Canada's top hope when Stojko said last Tuesday he would not go to the worlds.

"My goal was ideally to finish 12th but it is changing now," Buttle said.

Canada's other men's representative, Ben Ferreira, the Edmonton skater who recently moved to Barrie, Ont., to train, had a rough time, finishing 10th in the group won by Russia's Olympic gold medallist Alexei Yagudin.

Ferreira missed his triple Axel twice and was marked between as low as 4.3 although was closer to 4.9 on average.

He only found out he was coming a week ago, replacing Stojko.

"I had the opportunity to talk with Elvis and he told me strategy on how to prepare for the competition mentally and physically," Ferreira said.

In the pairs event, without Olympic gold medallists Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, Canada's three couples were all in the top 12 after the short program.

Jacinthe Lariviere of Princeville, Que., and Lenny Faustino of Woodbridge, Ont. were eighth; Anabelle Langlois of Grand-Mere, Que., and Patrice Archetto of Montreal were 11th; and Valerie Marcoux of Gatineau, Que., and Bruno Marcotte of Beloeil, Que., were 12th.

Olympic bronze medallists Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao led the event after the short program, worth one-third of the final score.

The free skating is Wednesday.

The Canadian silver medallists, Lariviere and Faustino were happy with the clean short programs, getting marks between 5.0 and 5.2.

They were supported by the small group of Canadians in the audience who cheered wildly when they landed side-by-side triple jumps.

"We heard screams," Faustino said. "That was a good feeling but we tried to stay calm because that was just the middle of the program."

Notes: In Zagreb, Croatia, Maxim-Billy Fortin, 15, of Stoneham, Que., won the novice men's title in his first international assignment. Jessica Dube, 14, of St-Cyrille de Wendover, Que., won bronze . . . In the junior division at the same meet, Cynthia Phaneuf, 14, of Contrecoeur, Que., won women's gold. Joining her on the podium was Calgary's Amanda Billings, 15. Damien Mainprize, 17, of Almonte, Ont., won men's bronze. Michael Craigmyle, 17, of Vancouver was eighth.