- Australian/American coverage (commentators: Dick Button, Peggy Fleming, Beth Ruyak) - ladies/women's free skate/long programs from the 1991 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships (Minneapolis, Minnesota): Final Rank Name SP FS* 1 Tonya Harding 2 1* 2 Kristi Yamaguchi 1 2* 3 Nancy Kerrigan 3 3* 6 Holly Cook 4 6* ---- [N.Y. Times extract] FIGURE SKATING; Harding Takes Singles Title By Michael Janofsky, Feb. 17, 1991 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.
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