Ladies and Pairs Highlight the European Championships
By Isobel Moody
Three reigning champions repeat in stronger ladies and weaker men and dance competitions; a good pairs competition ends in an upset.
After regularly hosting a Junior Grand Prix event, Ostrava took on a bigger task: hosting their first ever European Championships, which returned to the Czech Republic for the first time since 1999. This was the first of four ISU Championship events that highlight the second half of the figure skating season. Some things about the way the competition went were typical. The Russians won a lot of medals, including two golds. France and Italy also had a good week. Three reigning champions repeated. But there was one surprise win, albeit a Russian one, and the best shows weren’t the disciplines people necessarily thought they were going to be.
Men
Javier Fernandez won his fifth straight European title, and became the first man to do so since the ’70s. His short was the more impressive of his performances, even if he had to hold on to the quadruple toe loop in his quad-triple jump combination. His quad salchow went better, and he even set a new personal best. In the long program, on the other hand, he nailed a solo quad toe, but struggled with the salchow. He got it out in combination, with a wild turn in between the jumps, but slipped and fell on the solo one. He had minor errors on a couple of other jumps as well.
No one here really challenged him. But silver medalist Maxim Kovtun continued his recovery from his recent spiral. He too had a good short, holding on to a quad toe and doing a good quad salchow-triple toe. He landed both those quads well in the free too, though there he tripled the salchow in combination, as well as doubling a lutz. But when he managed his other triples, that was more than enough for silver. Mikhail Kolyada was another Russian who medaled on the quality of his clean triples, which he got high marks for. A clean quad toe-triple toe in the short also helped, even if he also singled an axel there. During his free, he singled another one, went down on a quad lutz attempt, and his quad toe was messy.
Had someone else delivered, Kolyada might not have managed to medal. For instance, initially third after the short was Alexei Bychenko. He also skated a clean short, though he only had a quad toe. In the free, he landed it in combination, and but nearly fell on another one. Then he did fall on a second axel, and doubled another jump. Even a couple of his clean jumps were close calls. He was ninth in the segment and barely held onto fifth. His fellow Israeli, Daniel Samohin, had an outside shot at a medal. But when the airline lost his skates, and he had to do his short in his brother’s, he skated so badly he didn’t even qualify for the free. In earlier years, Michal Brezina, too, might have medaled here. But his downward spiral continued, with him having a particularly bad free and finishing twelfth.
Perhaps the disappointment Kovtun is most happy about is the one that greatly increases his chances for making the World Championships: Alexander Samarin. If Samarin needed to convince the Russian federation to give him the second berth after Kolyada, he didn’t do it here. In his short, he fell on his quad toe and stumbled through his combination. He got through a solo quad toe with a hand down and landed it with the triple in the free, but then he fell on an axel and doubled a loop. He finished eighth. Combine that with Kovtun’s triumph, and Russia might name their past favorite right away.
Taking advantage of all this chaos was Jorik Hendrickx, who had a breakout competition. The Belgian did not do any quad jumps, but skated a completely clean short and a free close to it. He performed with skill and expression. It got him to fourth place, even though he was fifth in both segments. Also having a breakout competition was Moris Kvitelashvili, a Moscow-born skater who now skates for Georgia. Neither of his programs were quite clean, but he landed a quad toe-triple toe in both, as well as a clean quad salchow in his fourth-place free skate. He also entertained considerably with his crowd-pleasing choreography and music. A tenth-place short and low presentation scores left him just behind Bychenko in sixth.
Ladies
Evgenia Medvedeva is looking more and more undefeatable all the time. It helped that she nailed both her programs once again, from their strong opening triple flip-triple toe combinations onward. Now she’s talking about doing a quadruple salchow at Worlds. Here, however, she settled for breaking her own world records in the long program and overall score. For the second competition in a row, she also threw in an extra triple toe that got invalidated, because she could. This time, after landing her three jump and second triple-triple in the free skate, she attached it a double axel for an illegal fourth combination. One suspects they may at some point change the rules again to penalize her for this if she keeps it up, but for now it’s just a jump that doesn’t count.
Her countrywomen Anna Pogorilaya and Maria Sotskova also nailed their shorts. So did Carolina Kostner of Italy. In her third and by far biggest competition since her return, she showed her ability to both outskate and out-artist Pogorilaya and Sotskova. But she was only doing a triple toe-triple toe, while they were both doing the triple lutz-triple toe. Kostner squeaked ahead of Sotskova, but was two points behind Pogorilaya at the end of the short.
Neither Kostner nor Pogorilaya were as perfect in the free, but nor were they far off. Kostner’s only real trouble was on an attempted triple-double combination. Of course, not only was she still doing the easier triple-triple, but she only did one triple harder than a loop. Pogorilaya’s main problem was the difficult triple-triple. First she tilted too wide on her opened lutz to add the toe. Later she tried to do the combination in place of her intended solo lutz, but underrotated it. With a couple of other jump glitches, she came in behind Kostner in the segment. But she kept it close enough to hold on overall, taking silver by a little less than a point.
Sotskova had much more trouble with her lutzes. She underrotated and fell on both the triple-triple and the solo lutz. Combined with an underrotated loop, and she had to hold on to fourth ahead of Frenchwoman Laurine Lecavelier, who beat her in the free. Lecavelier might not have had the presentation of the top four, but she did very well for herself. She too skated a clean short. Her free was more good than not, although her jumps started to show trouble and she even doubled one towards the end, which she finished late enough to be penalized. She landed the triple lutz-triple toe in both programs too.
Pairs
Common wisdom held the pairs competition would be a battle between Ksenia Stolbova & Fedor Klimov and Aliona Savchenko & Bruno Massot, at least provided Savchenko was recovered enough. As it happened, she wasn’t entirely. Her ankle was still in dubious enough condition they chose to do a throw double axel instead of the triple during their short program. But then, after a ridiculously high twist they got maximum execution points on and side by side salchows they held onto, she fell during their step sequence. But Stolbova & Klimov had their own fall trying a throw flip. When they also got cited for a time violation, they ended up sixth hundredths of a point behind the Germans. Third Russian team Natalia Zabiiako & Alexander Enbert were only a point behind thanks to a clean skate.
This opened the door for the second Russian team, and Evgenia Tarasova & Vladimir Morozov blazed through. Most of their program was nigh perfect, energetic and dazzling. It also had straight level fours, so even with only side by side toes and a throw loop they still had the highest technical tariff of anyone. They scored over 80 points. But they weren’t even the only team that took advantage. Vanessa James & Morgan Cipres melted the ice with their short program. They combined attitude and sex appeal with the salchows and the throw flip both. Her reaction to their scores when they inched a point ahead of Savchenko & Massot might have also been the moment of the day.
The moment of the next day, however, was Savchenko & Massot’s long program. It was the best performance they’d ever done, delicate and emotional. That it wasn’t perfect, because he doubled the second triple toe in their sequence, didn’t prevent any of that. Technically, though they also still only did a double axel throw, they again hit the salchows and got top marks for their twist. Even with the mistake, they won the free skate. But they only won it by two points over Tarasova & Morozov. Although they didn’t have the Germans’ technical or artistic content, Tarasova & Morozov performed their free very well, pulling everything off, doing side by side salchows this time, and even maxing out the value of a throw triple loop. They held on easily to win gold.
Savchenko & Massot’s silver was in fact narrowly won, but that wasn’t over Stolbova & Klimov. However, it wasn’t like the Russian champions didn’t skate a good free. In fact, they skated a great one. It was chock-full of pristine jumps, including a three-jump and their triple salchows. It was marred only by their falling on the throw flip again. But that was all James & Cipres needed. Theirs was another free that wasn’t perfect, because when they went for the quad salchow she two-footed it. But when they more or less pulled everything else off, and they too did a three-jump and salchows, they got the highest technical score of the day. Combined with the powerful program, and it was more than enough for bronze. They’re the first French pairs team to medal at an ISU Championships since 2003 Europeans.
With the teams above them being too good, Zabiiako & Enbert fell away a little bit. They had a little more trouble, most notably her singling their salchows. That one of their throws too was only a double axel didn’t help either. But their three-jump was the most technically difficult side by side pass any of the pairs did, and they did it well. When they were overall decent, they broke 200 overall and came in a pretty strong fifth.
Dance
The dance event wasn’t the best, but it did have a lot of drama. The short dance saw reigning World Champions Gabriella Papadakis & Guillaume Cizeron shockingly in third, even when they maxed out their lift, due to low levels on their steps. And that wasn’t even the story of the day. Above them, the highest tariff of the day initially gave Anna Cappellini & Luca Lanotte the lead by a fraction of a point over Ekaterina Bobrova & Dmitri Soloviev. But many hours later, officials looked again, and decided to class a closing move by the Italians as an illegal extra lift. They got docked a point for it, and dropped to second. Fans were not impressed.
It nearly got worse during the free dance, as it almost proved the difference between the two teams. Not for gold, though, because the French came back to claim that. They and the Italians tied for the top technical tariff of the night, and if their performance wasn’t their absolute best, it was clean. That proved enough when most of the other teams weren’t at their best either. Even when they did very well for the rest of their program, Cappellini & Lanotte started it by her putting a foot down on the twizzles. Bobrova & Soloviev had no such visible difficulties. They skated well enough they nearly made the difference in the tariff up enough to stay ahead. But ultimately, Cappellini & Lanotte squeaked ahead by eight hundredths of a point to win silver.
Their fellow Italians and Russians had an even rougher time of it. Not that Charlene Guignard & Marco Fabbri had any trouble with their short dance; that nailed that no problem. It put them into fourth, a point ahead of Isabella Tobias & Ilia Tkachenko, who had a higher tariff, but lower presentation marks. Alexandra Stepanova & Ivan Bukin got hit with three level 2s, and were in sixth. Victoria Sinitsina & Nikita Katsalapov had an even lower tariff, and were all the way down in eighth.
Things did not improve for Sinitsina & Katsalapov in the free dance. They had more than one rough moment, the worst being when he failed do most of their twizzles. Twelfth in the segment, they dropped to tenth. But the scariest moment of the night went to Guignard & Fabbri, when he slipped coming out of a lift where he was holding her upside down. Thankfully she didn’t hit her head, and they seemed unhurt, but they still fell to sixth, seventh in the segment. Stepanova & Bukin had a better skate, but they were still plagued by very low levels in their steps. Even Tobias & Tkachenko had the same, but when their tariff was higher, and they kept their heads and their grace and beauty, they stayed ahead for fourth, leaving Stepanova & Bukin in fifth.
View full results here.
Spots for 2018 Europeans
All ISU Championships, except the Four Continents Championships, use their placements to determine which countries will get multiple berths to the competition the next year. For three berths, a country’s top two skaters’ placements must add up to 13 or less, or their sole entry must make the top two. Two berths mostly go to countries that finish in the top ten, though there are other ways two skaters from a country can manage it.
3 berths next year: Russia (all four disciplines), Italy (Ladies & Dance), France (Dance)
2 berths next year: France (Men, Ladies, & Pairs), Germany (Men, Ladies, & Pairs), Belgium (Men & Ladies), Czech Republic (Men & Pairs), Israel (Men & Dance), Georgia (Men), Latvia (Men), Spain (Men), Slovakia (Ladies), Hungary (Ladies), Sweden (Ladies), Austria (Pairs), Belarus (Pairs), Italy (Pairs), Denmark (Dance), Poland (Dance), Ukraine (Dance)
Next: A Top British Team is Out for the Season
The next ISU Championship is Four Continents, a parallel competition to this one meant for non-European countries. That will also serve as the test event of the Gangneung Ice Arena, the venue for the figure skating events at next year’s Olympics. It happens Feb. 14-19.