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FIGURE SKATING; Harding Takes Singles Title
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY and SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES FEB. 17, 1991
February 17, 1991, Page 008006Buy Reprints The New York Times Archives
In a stunning upset, Tonya Harding of Portland, Ore., skated a near perfect program today to win the women's singles title at the national figure skating championships.
With an eclectic mix of music that included the theme from Batman, Send in the Clowns and Tone Loc's funky version of Wild Thing, she landed seven triple jumps, one of them a triple Axel, which made her the first American woman to complete one in competition. She also became the first to complete six different triple jumps. Midori Ito of Japan, the 1989 world champion, is the only other skater who has completed the Axel and six different triples in one program. One Judge Awards 6.0
Harding's program was so technically proficient that one of the nine judges, Roger A. Glenn of Appleton, Wis., awarded her a perfect 6.0 for technical merit. No woman skater since Janet Lynn, here in 1973, had been awarded a perfect mark for the technical phase of her performance. The other eight judges gave her 5.9s.
Those scores, combined with her high marks for artistic presentation, earned Harding superior overall scores from seven judges, as two others favored Kristi Yamaguchi, the 19-year-old favorite from Fremont, Calif., who had led Harding and 13 others after the original program Thursday night.
While Yamaguchi's program, skated to music from the opera Sampson and Delilah, was elegant and seamless, with jumps that appeared effortless, she landed only six of the seven triples she attempted, falling on the one that has always given her the most trouble, the Salchow, and wobbling through another. Second for Third Time
As a result, she finished second for the third consecutive year. In 1989 and 1990, she placed behind Jill Trenary, who went on the become the world championship last year. Trenary was forced to withdraw from the competition this year because of recent surgery on her right ankle.
Nancy Kerrigan, a 21-year-old skater from Stoneham, Mass. who was third in the original program, held her position to join Harding and Yamaguchi as qualifiers for the world championships, next month in Munich.
It was difficult enough to imagine Yamaguchi losing the best opportunity of her career to claim a singles title. But the way it happened was simply electrifying because of the triple Axel. It came in early in her program, when the music was conjuring dark images of Gotham City and Jack Nicholson as the Joker.
She soared on her takeoff, spun three and a half revolutions -- one-half more than all other triples -- and landed with her fists clenched and saying, "Yes!" 'It was the Best'
"It was the best," Harding said, when asked how it made her feel. "It made it so easy for me the rest of the program. Knowing I'm the first American woman to do it is overwhelming."
She still had nearly three minutes more to skate, but she sailed through, with only one minor glitch, a slight hesitation between a combination of two triple-toe loop jumps. As the music ended, more than 10,000 spectators leaped with applause.
With a soft cast on her foot, Trenary marveled at what she had just seen. "That's a big risk to take and do it," she said of the triple Axel, which is named after Axel Paulsen, a Norwegian who skated early in the century. "If you fall on that thing, you disrupt your whole program. I was totally impressed."
Vern Taylor of Canada was the first ever to land a triple Axel 13 years ago. Harding, who was ill during the championships last year and finished seventh, has been dabbling with it for four years. She had tried it in four comeptitions since 1989 but fell twice, cut it short once and stumbed after landing one other one.
In training, she had more success, landing three of five in practice before the competition and one of two as she warmed up. Accepting a Loss
With Trenary hurt and Ito undergoing recent surgery on her jaw, Harding could enter the world championships as a strong favorite. No other skater can match the range of her program, and few have demonstrated comparable spirit and energy.
Yamaguchi, meanwhile, took the loss bravely, even if reddened eyes suggested she had been crying. She has been working on the triple Axel and pronounced it "very close," though she has not landed it cleanly.
"I'm a little disappointed," she said. "I skated as well as I could, except for one mistake. So I should feel good."
A version of this article appears in print on February 17, 1991, on Page 8008006 of the National edition with the headline: FIGURE SKATING; Harding Takes Singles Title. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe