World Figure Skating : Boitano Has a Big Finish to Win Title

American Brian Boitano combined aerodynamics and Hollywood flourishes in a jazzy long program to unseat the defending champion, Alexander Fadeev of the Soviet Union, and win the men’s World Figure Skating crown Thursday.

Boitano, 22, of Sunnyvale, Calif., in fourth place entering the final, jumped and jitterbugged his way into the hearts of spectators and judges alike as he executed one perfect move after another in a dramatic program to Gershwin and the blues.

Second was Canadian Brian Orser, who despite a tumble on one triple axel jump and faltering out of another in an otherwise fast and action-packed routine, wound up with the same 5.4 total factored placements as Boitano. But Boitano had six of the nine top scores in the long program to win it all.

In third was Fadeev, who sputtered out in the long program, faltering on three triple jumps and falling on another.

Boitano completed the event’s only clean triple axel jump in a night when one favorite after another tripped up. Among them was Jozef Sabovcik, the talented Czechoslovakian jumper and European champion who had been in second place but hobbled off the ice, obviously in pain.

Boitano also aired a triple toe loop, followed by a double toe loop, followed by a double loop -- seven rotations in the air in a few seconds time and something very few skaters ever attempt in competition.