W. German Skater Tops Last World Figures Test

Richard Zander of West Germany held off defending world champion Kurt Browning of Canada today to win the last men’s compulsory figures competition in figure skating history.

Zander won the first phase of the event at the world championships as the sport prepared to head toward what he called “a whole new world.”

Compulsory figures, the intricate variations on the figure-eight that have been the bane of so many skaters for so long, have been abolished by the International Skating Union as of July 1 this year.

“I’m happy to be the last men’s world champion in compulsory figures,” Zander said after they were staged for the last time in a major championship.

“It would be better for me if they stayed in--and they should, in my opinion, be kept in because it is figure skating,” Zander said.

“It’s going to be a whole new world now for the skaters and the judges. But we’ve known it for two years, and I can skate strong freestyle too.”

Because of a serious back injury that threatened to end his career, Zander has not appeared in a world championship since 1987, when he placed fifth.

He won the figures in the European championships last year and again this year, but a year ago the injury forced him to withdraw.

After an intensive year of physiotherapy, acupuncture and special exercises to strengthen his back, Zander may be ready to fulfill the promise he showed three years ago.

“If I can skate a clean original program, I’ll have a good chance,” said Zander, who was raised in Portland, Ore.

Zander won both figures, which are worth 20% of the total marks, and got the highest mark awarded for the day, 4.5 for his second figure, the loops.

Browning, who snatched the world title with his patented quadruple jump in Paris last year, finished three places higher than he did in the same phase a year ago.

“For the first time, I did them as well as I do them at home,” he said. “At least that happened once before they disappear, and I’m happy about that.

“Next year it will be like changing jobs. I’m excited and nervous about it.”

Browning trailed European champion Viktor Petrenko after the first figure but overtook the Russian in the second to set up an expected battle between the pair for the gold medal.

Grzegorz Filipowski of Poland took fourth place ahead of Petr Barna of Czechoslovakia, with last year’s silver medalist, American Christopher Bowman, sixth.