The ISU European Championships concludes tonight with the Exhibition, livestreaming from 12.25 am AEDT on SBS On Demand.
Guignard/Fabbri (ITA) dance to their first European title
Thirteen years after their debut at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships, Italy’s Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri stepped on to the top of the podium, giving Italy its first European Ice Dance title since 2014.
Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson made Great Britain proud by earning the first European Championship medal since 2014 and, to the delight of the home crowd, Juulia Turkkila/Matthias Versluis of Finland earned the bronze – the first Finnish Ice Dance medal since Susanna Rahkamo/Petri Kokko won in 1995.
Overnight leaders Guignard/Fabbri skated last after Fear/Gibson had already heated up the arena. The pressure was on, and the Italians knew they had no room for error. Their intense and spooky Free Dance to “My Love Will Never Die” and “Mephisto’s Lullaby” featured difficult lifts and intricate footwork that seamlessly connected with each other to create a memorable story on the ice.
The two-time European bronze medalists collected a level four for the spin, the lifts and his twizzles to score 124.91 points. Overall they racked up 210.44 points to strike gold.
“It has been a long journey to get to this point and we couldn’t be happier,” Fabbri said. “It is difficult to express our feelings. It's a work of a lifetime and a real dream come true.”
“We tried to avoid this thought, we tried to think about something else, many different things, but it's hard to not think about the gold medal, so it's been a tough approach, but we somehow managed to deal with it in a good way.”
Gubanova’s first for Estonia makes history
Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia skated off with the gold medal, making history for her country as the first to win an ISU Championship. Belgium’s World Championships silver medalist and top favorite Loena Hendrickx settled for the silver medal, while Kimmy Repond of Switzerland earned the bronze in her debut at the ISU European Championships.
Short Program leader Gubanova took to the ice last and seized control of her sublime Bollywood-themed program from the very first second.
The John Wilson Trophy bronze medalist started off with a triple Lutz-triple toeloop combination and reeled off four more clean triple jumps, including a triple flip-triple toe in the second half, as well as two level-four spins. The only glitch came when she stumbled on a triple flip attempt that was downgraded.
At the end, Gubanova knelt down on the ice, overcome by emotion, and broke into tears of joy and relief.
The 21-year-old posted a season’s best of 130.10 points and racked up 199.91 points overall to take the title. It was also the first Women’s medal for Georgia since Elene Gedevanishvili’s bronze in 2012.
“I have not realized it yet, I am in shock. I was so nervous before my skate and mentally it was very tough,” Gubanova said.
“At the end of my performance, there were a lot of emotions. Mostly I was happy that I was able to overcome myself. This medal means a lot to me.”
Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) golden in Espoo
Adam Siao Him Fa of France skated off with the gold medal and the first European title for his country in 12 years. Italy’s Matteo Rizzo took the silver medal, while Lukas Britschgi of Switzerland rose from fifth to claim the bronze, the first medal for his country since Stéphane Lambiel won silver in 2010. Siao Him Fa and Britschgi won their first ISU Championship medal in Espoo.
Siao Him Fa’s expressive program to a selection of music by Woodkid was the continuation of his Short Program, telling a story of going back in time to fix mistakes he made in the past. He opened with a triple Lutz and followed up with a quad toe-double toe and a triple Axel.
The French Champion landed three more clean triple jumps, but he wobbled on the quad Salchow and missed the quad toe. He picked up a level four for his spins and step sequence and scored 171.24 points.
Siao Him Fa ranked second in the Free Skating, but thanks to his lead from the Short Program solidly remained in first place at 267.77 points, matching the feats of Florent Amodio in 2011, who was the last Frenchman to win the European singles title.
“I have not realised the result of the competition yet. I am good at hiding my emotions, but I am very happy. It is something to be European Champion,” Siao Him Fa said.
“I realize that hard works pays off and I have to continue like this. I had a difficult week of training which was very stressful, more stressful than the competition, but I think it helped me a lot. During my program, I knew it wasn’t a victory yet, there were errors, but I fought until the end. I did not let go, I fought for everything, each element counts.”
The ISU European Championships concludestonight with the Exhibition, livestreaming from 12.25 am AEDT on SBS On Demand.
