World Figure Skating : Chin Trails Ivanova After Compulsories

American Tiffany Chin was second after women’s compulsory figures Wednesday at the World Figure Skating Championships while the Soviet Union captured the pairs gold medal and took the lead in two other events.

Chin, 17, of Toluca Lake, Calif., trailed women’s leader Kira Ivanova of the Soviet Union, the 1984 Olympic bronze medalist. Katarina Witt, 19, of East Germany, the Olympic gold medalist and reigning world champion, was third. Debi Thomas, 17, of Los Angeles, was seventh.

The Russian duo of Elena Valova and Oleg Vasiliev, winners of the pairs gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Games, won the free-skating portion of the event with an impressive performance.

Soviets Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov finished second, followed by Katherina Matousek and Lloyd Eisler of Canada.

Jill Watson and Peter Oppegard of Los Angeles were fourth. Natalie and Wayne Seybold of Wilmington, Del., were ninth.

In ice dancing, the Soviet pair of Natalia Bestemianova and Andrei Bukin moved closer to the title with near-perfect marks in the original set pattern competition.

Americans Judy Blumberg and Michael Seibert of New York were third after two events at the Meiji Jingu Skating Rink. Blumberg and Seibert won a bronze medal in last year’s World Championships at Ottawa.

Americans Scott Gregory and Suzanne Semanick of Wilmington, Del., were 12th.

Ivanova, 21, received 104.9 points from the judges, while Chin and Witt each received 100.4 for three compulsory figures.

Ivanova, who named Witt and Chin as her chief rivals for the women’s title, said she was satisfied with her performance.

“Compulsory figures are not my favorite event, but I think I performed OK today,” she said.

Valova and Vasiliev trailed Selezneva and Makarov after Tuesday’s short program. But in the free skating, they scored high in artistic impression, receiving four scores of 5.9 points of a possible 6.0.

Bestemianova and Bukin’s original set pattern dance kept them in the lead.

“I think we could win (the ice dancing) if we are only confident in ourselves,” Bestemianova said. The free skating portion will be held on Friday.

The Olympic silver medalists danced to music from “Carnival Night” and collected six scores of 5.9 for presentation. Fellow Soviets Marina Klimova and Sergei Ponomarenko, who narrowly beat Blumberg-Seibert for the bronze at Sarajevo, were a close second.