Browning Repeats -- Eldredge Falls

Copyright Globe Newspaper Company 1990

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia - Kurt Browning is the toughest act to follow north of the border this side of k.d. lang.

In fact, there might not be a tougher act to follow in all of sports than Kurt Browning on his home ice.

In the last two nights, Browning has attracted dozens of flowers, enough stuffed animals and balloons to fill a large cardboard box, articles of clothing -- all rained upon the Metro Centre ice by admirers as Browning won his second successive world figure skating championship.

Last night Todd Eldredge of the South Chatham Eldredges followed Browning and twice fell in finishing fifth.

"It's difficult when there is so much momentum in the bulding," said Eldredge's coach, Rich Callaghan. "It can get your adrenaline pumping too much."

Browning, 23, outperformed Soviet champion Viktor Petrenko and 1989 US champion Christopher Bowman with seven triple jumps and 11 scores of 5.9 during the long program.

However, Browning did not complete a quadruple jump, the maneuver that placed him in the Guinness Book of World Records.

"I wanted to do the quad," Browning said. "But it didn't work out. It wasn't until I was in the air that I decided not to do it.

"I knew a fall would have made it too close, and maybe that went through my mind."

Two years ago, Browning became the first skater to complete a quadruple jump in competition, yet he finished sixth in the world championships at Budapest.

This time Browning did everything but a quad -- and he won the title.

Such are the ironies of skating, often one of the more predictable of sporting activities.

Still, Browning's performance was more adventurous and inspiring than that of Petrenko, who was in first place after the original program. Petrenko had followed Browning the previous night and scored two 6.0s. Last night Petrenko led off the Final Five and jogged in with five 5.7s and a 5.6; his fatal move was to change a triple jump to a double.

Then Browning put his act on the ice. He was far from perfect, but on this night, he proved himself -- it is one thing to change a triple to a double, as Petrenko did, quite another to back off a quadruple to a triple, as Browning did.

This nearly became a disaster for the US team. Paul Wylie had fallen during the short program, but he recovered for a 10th-place finish. And Eldredge, who won the US championship last month, stumbled last night.

That left Bowman to salvage American hopes. He scored two 5.9s with a high-risk, improvised program.

"Halfway through," Bowman said, "I decided I'd better forget the stupid instructions and start jumping my brains out. Just let it go and don't look back."

The people have spoken. And finally, the powers that be have heard.

Until recently, the dancing Duchesnays were among figure skating's most controversial figures.

But yesterday acceptance finally came to the Duchesnays.

They earned two perfect scores and were in second place after the original set pattern of ice dancing in the world championships.

"I believe," said US coach Ron Ludington, "a signal is being sent."

The Duchesnays siblings -- born French (Paul) and Canadian (Isabelle), raised in Montreal and trained in West Germany -- trail only the Marina Klimova-Sergei Ponomarenko team of Moscow going into the final tonight.