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Ice Skating: Browning makes a piece of history
| Source: |
The Times |
| Date: |
March 26, 1988 |
| Author: |
John Hennessy |
Brian Boitano, recently installed as Olympic figure skating champion
recovered his world title here last night but his victory was
overshadowed by an historical achievement by Kurt Browning and by a
defeat in the free skating section by another Canadian, Brian
Orser.
Browning became the first skater in history to achieve a quadruple
jump in combination, a toe loop. Boistano tried the jump, too, as he
had done last year, but he could not quite bring it off. His free foot
touched the ice and he had immediately to perform a loop to avoid a
falling.
There was a second blemish in Boitano's programme for, oddly, his axel
offering was only a single. It was menat to be a triple, of course,
but the take-off was faulty. Elsewhere he did six triple jumps, two in
combination (flip and toe loop).
Orser, winner for Canada last year, on the other hand executed two
triple axels among an array of seven triple jumps in a fine exhibition
and was justifiably placed first in the free. He was given three sexes
for artistic impression.
A superb counter-attack by Debi Thomas, the American champion, has
transformed the women's event into a cliffhanger. By winning
yesterday's short programme, in courageous circumstances, thomas, the
Champion in 1986, moved to within 0.8 points of Katarina Witt.
After a strong performance from Witt, which elicited a six (from the
East German judge, of course), Thomas still outscored her on the basis
of a more difficult combination (double loop to triple toe loop)
brilliantly executed.
Happily, the two British competitors, Joanne Conway and Gina Fulton,
showed some improvement.
RESULTS: Men's free skating: 1, B Orser (Can), 1.0pts; 2, B Boitano
(US), 2.0; 3, K Browning (Can), 3.0; 4, C Bowman (US), 4.0; 5, V
Petrenko (USSR),5.0; 6, P Wylie (US), 6.0. British placing: 14, P
Robinson, 14.0. Final: 1, Boitano, 4.2; 2, Orser, 4.8; 3, Petrenko,
9.8; 4, G Filipowski (Pol), 9.8; 5, Bowman. 11.8; 6, Browning
13.0. British placing 15, Robinson, 31.0. women's short programme: 1,
D Thomas (US), 0.4pts; 2, K Witt (EG), 0.8; 3, M Ito (Japan), 1.2; 4,
E Manley (Can) 1.6; 5, C Leistner (WG), 2.0; 6, S Koch
(EG). 2.4. British placings: 10, J Conway, 4.0; 20, G Fulton,
8.0. Positions: 1, K Witts, 1.4pts; 2, D Thomas, 2.2; 3, E Manley,
2.8; 4, C Leistner, 5.0; 5, C Kadavy (US) and J Trenary (US),
6.8. British placings: 8, J Conway, 8.2; 24, G Fulton, 21.8. Copyright
(C) The Times, 1988
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