Graz (Austria) (AFP)

Ahead, but only with a breath: Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, in search of a historic sixth consecutive continental coronation, are followed by a Russian duo after the rhythmic dance at the European Figure Skating Championships, Thursday in Graz (Austria) ).

On the catchy tunes of the musical Fame, a candy pink and turquoise combination with gaiters for her, a pink top and much wiser pants for him, Papadakis and Cizeron, authors of an impeccable performance, collected 88.78 points. Only five hundredths more than the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov (88,73). The Italians Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri complete the provisional podium (84.66).

If the French tandem has "the feeling" of having skated its "best performance of the season", it has plateaued at more than one point from its record score (90.03 in November). The Russian tandem, on the other hand, improves its best score by more than two and a half points. A situation which raises questions, but did not really surprise the trainer of the quadruple world champions and French Olympic vice-champions, Romain Haguenauer.

"For me, it was by far their best performance of the year, it was clean, it was fluid. I find that the notes are low, we feel that it is pulling a little down. They almost were second without error ", explains Haguenauer. Before providing an explanation: instructions asking "not to give too much 10" in artistic notes in rhythmic dance, passed by the referee at the pre-competition meeting of the judges.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time (that this has happened). Who is affected? Those who take a lot: them. It is really aimed at penalizing them," he adds.

- "Wakeup call" -

"I don't think it was an attack on Gabriella and Guillaume, he said, however, it is that this Russian couple must be reassembled by sticking it to the favorites. There is indirect competition with the Americans and Canadians". First in the race for the world podium, and in two months in Montreal.

"It's still a reminder: they skated very well today (Thursday), but it can be removed more, and if we don't perform extraordinarily well, the others get closer, especially in a context where we wants the others to get closer, "says Haguenauer.

Papadakis and Cizeron, whose free dance scheduled for Saturday afternoon is the preferred exercise, nevertheless remain in a favorable position to offer themselves a sixth consecutive European crown.

It would allow them, at 24 for her, and 25 for him, to equal the most successful duo in history at continental level, the Soviets Liudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorchkov, six times gold medalist in the 1970s , but not consecutively.

He would also make them the most crowned French skaters in history on the European scene, in front of Surya Bonaly, crowned five times between 1991 and 1995, and Alain Giletti, as much awarded between 1955 and 1961.

In the evening, the men's free program delivers the first title of the Austrian competition. Without Kévin Aymoz, who arrived pretending to be legitimate for gold, but not even invited to the second act after his short nightmare program the day before.

© 2020 AFP