Winter Olympics / Ice Skating: Kerrigan excels in moment of theatre: Harding's team-mate takes lead in women's skating technical programme as Wasmeier brushes aside Tomba in giant slalom

THE American soap opera featuring Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan reached a dramatic point here last night. Harding, who faces charges of aiding and abetting last month's assault on her rival, skated badly to lose any hope of an Olympic medal; Kerrigan negotiated the technical programme virtually without fault to go into tomorrow's concluding free routine in the lead. Cue theme music.

To the flag-waving Kerrigan supporters who filled the arena with acclamation it was clearly not so much soap opera as The Empire Strikes Back. Their girl, who has lost her nerve on more than one occasion in big competitions, had come through under pressure.

Come through, indeed, under the baleful gaze of Harding herself, who ensconced herself in an executive box to watch the rest of the programme after a tense and error- strewn performance which eventually left her in 10th place. She was seen to clap.

Kerrigan, who admitted she had seen parts of Harding's programme while she was getting ready, responded with a shrug and an embarrassed giggle when asked what she thought of her rival's performance. Having finished ahead of Oksana Baiul of Ukraine and Surya Bonaly of France, she thus faces an opportunity to improve upon the bronze medal she won at the Albertville Games.

'I have never been so confident and ready to do a long programme,' Kerrigan said afterwards. Harding, meanwhile, faces another awkward struggle on the ice. And a further interview with the FBI.

In dramatic terms, the two American skaters provided a satisfyingly complete contrast. Harding was pale and muscular in a short and shiny red outfit; she could have been kitted out for the Big Top. Kerrigan, thinner and leggier, was clad in unexceptionable black and white. It seemed almost symbolic.

After a succession of falls in practice this week, Harding, who is also carrying an ankle injury, was expected by many observers to hit the ice last night. She avoided that indignity, but her skating was tense and strewn with imperfections, the worst of them a stagger coming down from a triple lutz midway through her opening combination.

Afterwards, she brushed aside an attempted interview by CBS television, the American broadcasters who have paid dollars 295m ( pounds 200m) to show the Games.

Harding had seemed physically discomfited earlier as she awaited her marks in the kiss and cry corner. The collected floral tributes which her performance had drawn forth provoked her into a prolonged bout of sneezing.

'She looked very slow and tired on the ice,' said Jill Trenary, the 1990 world champion who announced her engagement to Christopher Dean on Tuesday. 'Her skating seemed to tell the world what she is going through.'

As Harding approached the centre of the arena before her routine, she raised her eyes and put her hands together in front of her face as if praying, a devotional gesture which sat uncomfortably with her attire.

Her prayers, if there were any, were not answered. The music began to the theme of Much Ado About Nothing, a choice made a year ago which has subsequently acquired ironic resonance.

There was a sense of tension as Harding skated down to the clean ice near the corner, with its orientating boards, in preparation for the combination jump which would effectively decide the realism of her high hopes. Down she came from the triple lutz, landing hesistantly two-footed, and staggering an extra step before recovering herself with the double toe loop.

That was the low point of the routine, although subsequent errors or weaknesses on a double flip, a spiral sequence and a long backspin lost her further fractions of a mark.

'Tonya it's you turn, so go for the prize, You're worthy of the crown, In all our eyes' is a representative stanza of a poem composed recently by two members of Harding's official fan club. The sentiments expressed found no echo in the panel of nine judges, two of whom, from Poland and Ukraine, gave Harding only 4.8 for required elements.

She would not be drawn on how fair it was. 'I'm not a judge, so I can't answer that. All I want is to be treated fairly. I was happy with the performance. You can't be perfect all the time. I try to think about this as just another competition. It's not, but that's what helps me through.'

(Photographs omitted)