Japan's Shizuka Arakawa skated an almost flawless free programme to Puccini's Turandot to thrill a sold-out Palavela and deny favourites Sasha Cohen and Irina Slutskaya their shots at Olympic gold.

Arakawa earned a standing ovation for her mesmerising performance as she overhauled a deficit of less than a point after the short programme to move from third to first place and be crowned champion.

Cohen, the American favourite who held a slender 0.03 points lead over Russian Slutskaya going into the free programme, touched down on each of her first two jumps to drop to silver.

And Slutskaya also made a costly mistake midway through her programme to fall and miss her chance of sealing a fairytale comeback gold three years after being diagnosed with a serious heart condition.

The 24-year-old Arakawa's emotional performance gave her an overall total of 191.34 points, placing her well above Cohen's 183.36 and a disappointing 181.44 for Slutskaya.

Slutskaya, the silver medallist in Salt Lake City four years ago, had come into the Games hoping to cap her miraculous comeback after claiming a record seventh European title last month.

But she needed a sensational display to match Arakawa, whose grace not to mention her choice of music captivated the Torinese audience and earned the biggest cheers of the night.

For Cohen it was a first Olympic medal four years after finishing an agonising fourth in 2002, and a deserved one after recovering well from her two faults early on.Elegant Arakawa insisted she did not skate a perfect programme and was delighted to find herself in gold medal position as her rivals tumbled.

Cohen shrugged off her failure to maintain her lead after the short programme and said: "It's one night, four minutes and a piece of metal. It's more about the journey over the four years."