Soviet Fadeev Takes Figure Skating Lead

Former world champion Aleksandr Fadeev of the Soviet Union jumped into the lead today after the original program of the men’s competition at the European Figure Skating Championships.

With a routine that included some interesting arm-shaking and body-wiggling choreography with a difficult triple axel-double toe loop combination, Fadeev moved ahead of figure leader Richard Zander. The West German dropped to sixth after making several mistakes in his program.

Fadeev now is in a commanding position to retain his European title. He won the world title in 1985 but was plagued by injuries at last year’s Olympics and world championship.

Entering Thursday’s free-skating final, Poland’s Grzegorz Filipowski is second, while Czechoslovakia’s Petr Barna ranks third.

Later today will be the first final of this year’s championships, the pairs free skating, with Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov of the Soviet Union leading.

On Tuesday there was a furor about the bare-midriff dress that Maia Usova of the Soviet Union wore during the dance compulsories.

The International Skating Union ruled that all costumes should be “modest and dignified and suitable for athletic competition,” and said judges could deduct up to two-tenths of a point for dress that did not conform.

During Tuesday’s compulsories, Usova got herself high marks from the judges but got a scathing complaint from a British coach who said her lime-green costume was “completely over the top.”