Kurt Browning and Yuka Sato each won their first World Professional Figure Skating Championships in stunning fashion Saturday night by upsetting the usually unbeatable.
Browning beat Brian Boitano, a six-time winner of the event, coming from behind in the free skate. The Canadian who won four amateur worlds, but was a bust in the 1992 and '94 Olympics, collected five perfect 10.0s and two 9.9s from the judges in the free skate, worth 50 percent of the total score.Skating to "Brick House" by the Commodores, Browning's rubber-legged act wowed the crowd of 18,150. It also so impressed the judges - the top and bottom scores were thrown out - that he received a 49.9 for the routine.
Boitano won the technical program with a powerful performance to "Appalachian Spring" from his 1994 Olympic long program, nailing five triple jumps.
Viktor Petrenko of Ukraine, the 1992 Olympic champion, was third, followed by Paul Wylie.
Japan's Sato, who won the 1994 amateur world championship on what many considered a hometown decision, stamped herself as a genuine force Saturday.
Sato, at 22 the youngest skater in the singles field, won both the technical and free skate programs in edging 1992 Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, a two-time winner of this prestigious event. She established her superiority in the technical routine with precise spins and four solid triple jumps, then finished with superb footwork.
"In the United States, to win as a Japanese . . . it is not easy to do. No one really knows about me," Sato said. "It is really hard for me to win in this country. I just started getting the feeling what kind of stuff American audiences like. We have the totally different cultures. Sometimes I think it will be really great, but you never know over here."
Neither Sato nor Yamaguchi did anything outstanding in the free skate, and Sato held on. Her winning total was 98.8 points from the seven judges - only five marks in each event count, with the highest and lowest thrown out. Yamaguchi managed 98.3.