Tenth after a badly started short program, the French skater (24), ninth in the Worlds-2021 but who is living a delicate season, offered a free program of much better quality on Friday evening, like his joy once the last musical notes played testified to this, despite two reversals on his quadruple jumps.

His best of this Olympic winter so far (171.82 pts).

Not so far from his personal best in the exercise dating from the end of 2019 (178.92).

"It wasn't + clean + yet, but I had fun on the ice. I was so good, it's a bit inexplicable. I was one with the ice, my music, my costume. It was nice", explains all smiles Aymoz, who totaled 252.21 points.

"In my seven, eight practices for the week, I must have missed four jumps in total. I was finally able to show two super good quadruples, I showed everyone that if it passes, I can do very, very scared," he says.

Short of physical form and as if stuck in a negative spiral, the skater from Isère had a more than delicate first half of the Olympic season, between pubalgia which stopped him all summer, return to Florida in his training center only in October after a year and a half away due to the pandemic, and a new scare with an "almost sprain" just before the European competition.

Kevin Aymoz during the free program of the Euro skating in Tallinn, January 14, 2022 Daniel MIHAILESCU AFP

"Physically, it's a big disaster," he even blurted out, but "I want to keep the super energy I had in training when I got home to prepare for the Olympic Games," Aymoz projects.

"In bubble mode" until the Olympics

It will look like two weeks "in bubble mode", "isolated in a different host family" than the one where he usually lives and with "ice slots reserved for places where there will be the fewest people" to minimize the risk health of Covid-19, he sketches.

Russian Mark Kondratiuk gold medalist in the free program of the Euro figure skating in Tallinn, January 14, 2022 Daniel MIHAILESCU AFP

At 18, Kondratiuk was crowned European champion on his first participation in the continental meeting.

With three quadruple jumps in his free program and a total of 286.56 points, the 2022 Russian champion won ahead of the Italian Daniel Grassl (274.48) and the Latvian Deniss Vasiljevs (272.08).

In the lead after the short program, the Russian Andrei Mozalev finally finished fourth (265.69).

Kondratiuk like Grassl (19) climb on their first international podium, the Russian on his first opportunity, the Italian, who also managed three quadruple jumps Friday evening, on his fourth.

This is also the case of Vasiljevs (22 years old) but the pupil of Stéphane Lambiel, who stands out for his artistic qualities but offers a lower technical content, took it up for the twelfth time since 2016.

The outgoing European champion, Russia Dmitri Aliev, was absent.

In ice dancing, in the absence of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron - as a health precaution in view of the 2022 Olympics - the Russians Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, reigning world and European champions, took the lead after the rhythmic dance, with 87.89 points, ahead of their compatriots Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin (86.45) and the Italians Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri (83.35).

The Russian couple Victoria Sinitsina-Nikita Katsalapov in the rhythmic dance event of the Euro, January 14, 2022 in Tallinn Daniel MIHAILESCU AFP

The free dance is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, and the last event, the women's free program, in the evening.

© 2022 AFP