
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 30, 1992                   TAG: 9203300122
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: OAKLAND, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

YAMAGUCHI WINS 2ND STRAIGHT WORLD TITLE

While Olympic champion Kristi Yamaguchi on Sunday became the first American woman to win consecutive world championships since Peggy Fleming in 1968, the United States failed to repeat its unprecedented medals sweep of a year ago.

Nancy Kerrigan, the Olympic bronze medalist, added a silver medal to the bronze she won in the 1991 worlds. But Tonya Harding-Gillooly, the world runner-up in 1991, plummeted to sixth with a mediocre free skate punctuated by a fall on a triple axel.

China's Lu Chen, a 15-year-old in her second year of senior competition, got the bronze, followed by Laetitia Hubert of France and Josee Chouinard of Canada.

For Yamaguchi, these world championships ended a perfect one-year run. She had never won a major singles event before taking the '91 worlds. Then she won the U.S. championship in January, and was the first American women's Olympic gold medalist since her idol, Dorothy Hamill, in 1976.

The 20-year-old from Fremont, Calif., - who was a two-time U.S. pairs champion with Rudy Galindo before dropping that discipline to concentrate on a solo career - then capped her spectacular run by outdoing Hamill to win her second world crown. Hamill won only in 1976.

Keywords:
FIGURE SKATING

by CNB