ICE SKATING: Browning plays it again to win gold

IF Kurt Browning were an actor, the Canadian might have won an Oscar for his performance in Prague last night. As it was, his portrayal of Humphrey Bogart as Rick, from the film Casablanca, earned him ing his fourth world title in five years. The theatricals were such that even the insouciant placing of his hands in his pockets and shrugging off a remembered kiss, cunningly choreographed, half-way through his 41/4-minute routine were cheered wildly. The 26-year-old Browning, whose mistake-ridden Olympic routine brought him only sixth place in Albertville, managed five triple jumps last night, including two triple axels, one in combination with a double toe loop, but he left out a planned loop and the lutz was flawed. He was completely outjumped by his team-mate, Elvis Stojko, who executed eight perfect triples, including a combination of lutz and toe loop which no-one else tried. While Stojko received high marks for his technical merit, the second set of awards, which are for artistic impression, were low. Nevertheless, he climbed from fifth after the initial round to gain the silver medal. Browning received three 5.7s and six 5.8s for technical merit but his artistic awards soared, comprising seven 5.9s, a 5.7 and a 6.0 from France. Britain's Steven Cousins started well with a triple lutz but things deteriorated immediately. The next jump, a triple axel which he had landed beautifully at his second attempt in the warm-up, collapsed into a double with a two-footed landing. The 20-year-old from Deeside has put enormous pressure on himself in his quest to be the first Briton to land this feat in competition, and that could be his problem. The sureness which has seen Cousins win the national title four times seemed to evaporate from his legs; he fell on a triple flip and stepped out of a second try. Though Cousins managed a triple salchow, from then on the rest of his jumps were doubles. "I don't know what happened. It was a nightmare. I've never skated like that," the despairing Cousins said. His first set of marks ranged from 4.5 up to 5.0 and, though those for artistic impression were better, rising from 4.7 to 5.3, they gave him only 18th place in last night's section and 18th overall. Earlier in the day, Maia Usova and Alexander Zhulin, of Russia, won the Viennese Waltz section by a significant margin to enhance their lead going into tonight's ice dance final. WORLD FIGURE SKATING CH'SHIPS (Prague).- Men's final, freestyle: 1, K Browning (Canada) 1.0; 2, E Stojko (Canada) 2.0; 3, A Urmanov (Russia) 3.0. Overall: 1, Browning 1.5; 2, Stojko 4.5; 3, Urmanov 4.5; 18, S Cousins (GB) 24.5. Pairs: 1, I Brasseur & L Eisler (Canada) 1.5; 2, M Woetzel & I Steuer (Germany) 3.5; 3, E Shiskova & V Naumov (Russia) 4.0; 4, R Kovarikova & R Novotny (Czechoslovakia) 7.0; 5, J Meno & T Sand (US) 7.0; 6, M Eltsova & A Bushkov (Russia) 9.5; 16, J Soames & J Jenkins (GB) 25.0. Ice dance (after original dance): 1, M Usova & A Zhulin ( Russia) 1.0pts; 2, O Gritschuk & E Platov (Russia) 2.0; 3, A Krylova & V Fedorov (Russia) 3.2; 18, M Humphreys & J Lanning (GB) 18.2.