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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 26, 1994                   TAG: 9403260115
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SATO SKATES TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD

The hometown fans in Chiba, Japan, had Yuka Sato, whose nimble jumps and flashy footwork gave her a narrow victory in the technical program Friday as she sought her first world title.

France's Surya Bonaly and Canada's Josee Chouinard also landed triple lutz-double toe loop combinations and were behind Sato going into tonight's free program, which decides two-thirds of the score.

Sato was fifth, Bonaly fourth and Chouinard ninth at Lillehammer. Gold medalist Oksana Baiul of Ukraine is recovering from an injury from the Olympics, silver medalist Nancy Kerrigan of the United States is resting, and bronze medalist Chen Lu of China dropped out Thursday with a broken foot.

Kerrigan's replacement, 13-year-old Michelle Kwan of Torrance, Calif., was a disappointing 11th after falling on her triple lutz and failing to make her required combination jump.

In ice dancing, Evgeni Platov of the Olympic champion pair had to jump back to his feet quickly after a rare fall as he and Oksana Gritschuk rock and rolled to the world title.

Russian or Soviet twosomes have won nine of the last 10 world championships in both ice dancing and pairs competition.

Two of the nine judges gave first place marks in Friday night's free program to France's Sophie Moniotte and Pascal Lavanchy.

Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko won the bronze medal, Finland's first World Championships medal ever in ice dancing.

Jerod Swallow and Elizabeth Punsalan, a husband-and-wife pair who train in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., finished 12th after a Latin beat free program.