FIGURE SKATING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS : Petrenko Wins; Bowman Falls but Finishes

Ukrainian Viktor Petrenko won the gold medal Friday in figure skating’s World Championships, and, unlike his victory last month in the men’s competition at the Winter Olympics, there was no question that he deserved it.

He was not perfect, although two of the nine judges gave him perfect scores of 6.0 for artistic impression, but he was clearly the best at the Oakland Coliseum Arena on an afternoon when almost all of the skaters performed better than they did in their 4 1/2-minute freestyle programs at the Olympics.

Of course, Petrenko might have been more pressured, and perhaps less sure on his skates, if all of his Olympic challengers had been here. But silver medalist Paul Wylie was skiing in Vail, Colo., having been left off the three-man U.S. team by the U.S. Figure Skating Assn. because it wanted to give a younger skater, Mark Mitchell, international exposure.

Although that decision, which was made before the Olympics, might have been well-reasoned, it came back to haunt the federation Friday, when no U.S. man won a medal for the first time at the World Championships since 1979. The silver and the bronze medals were won by Canadians, Kurt Browning and Elvis Stojko. As a result, the United States will have only two representatives in next year’s World Championships at Prague, Czechoslovakia.

But the United States also was a victim of bad luck. Two-time national champion Christopher Bowman of Van Nuys, perhaps skating competitively for the last time, appeared to be in position to finish third until his left knee seemed to buckle with more than a minute remaining in his program.

He fell to the ice, but, although in apparent pain, he completed his performance, including three difficult jumps. “I thought it was one of the most courageous exhibitions of competing in skating I’ve ever seen,” said John Nicks, who coaches Bowman at Costa Mesa.

But because Bowman’s program was interrupted, the judges could not help but deduct points. “He would have been the bronze medalist, absolutely,” Nicks said.

Instead, Bowman finished fourth, one place ahead of Mitchell. Both beat the Olympic bronze medalist, Czechoslovakia’s Petr Barna, who finished sixth after an erratic freestyle program. Two-time U.S. champion Todd Eldredge, still trying to regain his competitive edge after coming back from a back injury, finished seventh.

Bowman was taken to Oakland’s Summit Medical Center, where X-rays, according to the USFSA’s team doctor, Craig McQueen, revealed a torn tendon and bruised nerve. Bowman left the hospital on crutches.

Meantime, back at the Coliseum Arena, Petrenko, who has announced his retirement, stood on the top level of the victory platform, seemingly unemotional as he was honored by the flag and anthem of the International Skating Union. Because the Ukraine does not have its own figure skating federation, he, like the other former Soviets here, represents the Commonwealth of Independent States, which has neither a flag nor an anthem.

To fill the void, hundreds of Canadians among the crowd of 8,126 sang their national anthem for the benefit of Browning and Stojko.

Browning is a three-time world champion who was favored to win the gold medal in the Olympics until a back injury hampered his preparation. He finished sixth.

After Thursday’s original program, he was in third behind Petrenko and Barna. But the judges scored him better than he skated, and there were still questions about his fitness until Friday, when he looked almost like the Browning of old.