Bountiful's Holly Cook won the last compulsory figure ever skated in ladies' international figure skating and placed fourth in her other figure Wednesday to take a fourth-place standing overall behind an American, Soviet and West German at the 1990 World Figure Skating Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The ladies' original (short) program will be skated Friday afternoon with the freestyle to be held Saturday afternoon.Since Cook is a first-timer to the World Championships and basically an unknown internationally, "Her figure had to be pretty good to have her up there," said her coach, Kris Sherard by telephone Wednesday morning from Halifax.
"She did a super loop. The marks could have been higher," said Sherard, assuming Cook's anonymity was somewhat a problem with the judges. However, after both figures, two of the judges placed Cook first overall on their scorecards.
"Being the last figure ever skated," said Sherard, "eveyone was really up for it."
"It was the best loop I've ever done," said Cook, also by phone Wednesday morning.
The loop was the second of the two figures skated, and it was the last one that will ever count toward an overall championship as compulsory figures will from now on be a separate competition.
American Jill Trenary won the first figure and was first overall Wednesday. Trenary nosed out Cook for first place in figures three weeks ago during the U.S. Championships in Bountiful, but, like Wednesday, Cook won the second figure, the loop.
This loop was done on the other foot, said Cook, who said, "I traced everything just perfectly. It was better than Coast (Pacific Coast Sectional)."
Cook had not skated the first figure this season. It was a "double three" figure. "It was just a little messy. The overall figure was nice, but it could have been neater," said Cook.
Favored Midori Ito of Japan stood 10th following figures. Sherard said that could make it difficult for her to defeat Trenary, even if Ito wins short and long programs. In other standings, Natalia Lebedeva of the Soviet Union is second and Patricia Neske of West Germany is just ahead of Cook in third. American Kristi Yamaguchi is ninth after figures.
Cook has a favorable 27th-place start out of 29 skaters in Friday's original program, and that's the one that will likely decide whether she can place in the top seven or so, Sherard said. Because mistakes count more against skaters, "You can't blow the short and stay in it," Sherard said.
Sherard was a little puzzled why Cook didn't move up after winning the second figure but assumed it must have been because there was a big point spread in the first figure and a smaller one in the second.