Canadian Wins Gold; U.S. Figure Skater 2nd
| Source: |
San Francisco Chronicle, Ed: Final, Sec: Sports, P. D4 |
| Date: |
March 17, 1989 |
Copyright 1989 The San Francisco Chronicle
Paris -
Canada's Kurt Browning put on a dazzling display of high-class jumping,
including a trademark quadruple, to edge Chris Bowman of the United States
yesterday for the men's gold medal in the World Figure Skating
Championships.
Bowman, U.S. national champion from Van Nuys, began the day in third.
Skating right after Browning, he did his best to catch the Canadian with a
showy, flowing performance, but couldn't match Browning's jumping and had
to be content with a silver.
Poland's Grzegorz Filipowski upset an error-ridden Alexandr Fadeev of
the Soviet Union to take a bronze in the final performance of the night.
Browning, fifth after the compulsory figures and second entering the
final, free-skating program, included seven triple jumps as well as the
quadruple and earned a rapturous ovation from a noisy Canadian contingent
in a half-filled arena.
Browning, 22, sixth last year and eighth in the Calgary Olympics,
received seven marks of 5.9 for technical merit and four more for artistic
impression.
Earlier yesterday, Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, runners-up for
the past four years, earned two perfect 6.0s to take the
original-set-pattern portion of the ice-dance competition.
Susan Wynne and Joseph Druar of the United States remained in fifth
place.
Another American, Jill Trenary, made a solid start in her bid for the
women's title by placing second in the compulsory figures behind European
champion Claudia Leistner of West Germany. The original is scheduled for
today. Tomorrow's long program, which concludes the championships, counts
for 50 percent of the mark.
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