Graz (Austria) (AFP)
Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, five-time holders of the European ice dance title and favorites to keep it, were beaten by the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov on Saturday in Graz (Austria), their first defeat in two years.
Papadakis and Cizeron, with a total score of 220.28 points, were narrowly beaten, fourteen hundredths by the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katstalapov (220.42). Another Russian tandem, Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin, completed the podium (211.29).
The two French dancers, defending Olympic vice-champions and quadruple world champions, had not bowed since the Olympics-2018. And even since 2014, then their first winter in seniors, at European level.
Since their first international coronation, at the European Championships in 2015, and until Saturday, only the Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had managed to beat them (four times).
Papadakis and Cizeron approached their favorite exercise, with a tiny margin inherited from rhythmic dance, of five hundredths, on Sinitsina / Katsalapov. But three imperfections committed during their free skating program on an innovative slam penalized them.
They will have an opportunity to bounce back in two months at the World Championships in Montreal, where they have been training since 2014 under the direction of Romain Haguenauer, Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon.
The Austrian ice rink definitely did not succeed for the French team: on the first day of competition, Kévin Aymoz, a legitimate contender for gold, had not qualified himself for the free men's program after a short nightmare.
Russia, on the contrary, is all smiles: it has now pocketed the first three gold medals on the ice in Graz, with those of Dmitri Aliev on the men's side on Thursday, and of Aleksandra Boikava and Dmitrii Kozlovskii in pairs on Friday . And the fourth and last one is promised to him at the end of the free ladies program on Saturday evening.
© 2020 AFP