Unlike the girls, who, according to the results of the short program, the leadership trio from Russia seriously broke away from their rivals, there was no great advantage over the pursuers in pair skating. In this type of program, Russian skaters also occupied the first three lines, but the "safety margin" was only three points.

That is how much because of unsuccessful support on the first day, Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov won against the closest pursuers, of whom there were two at once. The Italian couple Nicole Della Monica - Matteo Guarise and the duet from Germany Minerva Fabien Hase - Nolan Segert retained the chances to climb the podium.

The Germans failed to seize this opportunity. Speaking in the penultimate group of participants, they were not able to carry out a whole series of elements purely - the partner fell on the triple salchow, and the partner on both emissions could not land according to all the rules. Haze and Segert scored only 186.39 points in total and even risked losing intermediate leadership after renting local favorites Miriam Ziegler and Zeverin Kiefer.

Further, Tarasova and Morozova themselves needed to prove that they were worthy to win the European Championship medal for the sixth time in a row. The Russian duet started the program with the usual quality twist, but then the problems began.

At the first attempt to execute a triple salchow, Tarasova spun two turns, and Morozov made a span. At the cascade, the partner fell completely and did not recover to a series of emissions. There was no question about the artistic component of their program, but the technical side of the rental left much to be desired, and one cannot help but recall that the couple performed without any acclimatization after arriving from Florida, where since this season she has been training with Marina Zueva. Of course, Tarasova and Morozov easily went ahead, but they could not be satisfied with an estimate of 208.64 points.

😱 You wouldn't believe the height on this twist! ⛸️ Tarasova / Morozov currently sit in first with one pair to go in the Pairs Short Program! # EuroFigure # FigureSkatingpic.twitter.com / YYLYl9kZ72

- ISU Figure Skating (@ISU_Figure) January 24, 2020

Next came the turn of Della Monica and Guarize to compete for the medal, which was annoyingly missed last year due to their own mistakes. But for them the story repeated - the Italians failed to hit the judges with either jumps or emissions - a total of 194.44 points.

Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin intended to keep the second place won after a short program and win the first medal of the continental championship after last year's unsuccessful attempt.

Their rental began with a parallel triple flip - in this jump they have no equal in the world. Soon they just as well performed this element in the ejection format, but it went to a pair of minus - after landing and a three-meter departure Pavlyuchenko unexpectedly lost her balance and fell. Missing silver in such a curious way was extremely disappointing, but the judges could not do anything. The pair scored 206.53 points and was lower than Tarasova and Morozov.

The competition program of the day was closed by the leaders Alexander Boykov and Dmitry Kozlovsky. The music for their program from the James Bond film may have caused tension and anxiety among the fans, but the couple themselves were confident in their abilities and a speedy victory. After the successfully completed hopping part, in which only Kozlovsky had small blots on the cascade, the students of Tamara Moskvina performed an exemplary release of a flip and the same cool rittberger.

The judges' support was also received with a bang, and then it was not about winning the European Championships, but about a record total of points for two rentals - the achievement of the Chinese Sui Wenjin and Han Tsun could soon sink into oblivion. But nevertheless, the referees decided that the records should be taken in full-time struggle. Boykova and Kozlovsky scored 234.58 points and the highest marks in history have lost only 0.26 points.

Soon, the Russians will have a chance to fight with an Asian couple at the World Cup, where they will definitely go. With other winners of the continental championship, the issue may still not be resolved.