Conti and Macii bring their country a first continental title in the category and win the best victory of their careers.

"It means so much to us, we really like skating for our country," reacted Niccolo Macii.

The duo, who played to the music of the film Cinema Paradisio, were the revelation of the season, winning their first two Grand Prix medals before obtaining bronze in the final in Turin.

Favorites of the competition thanks to their good recent results, they were present on the Finnish ice despite a feverish start to the free program.

"We made some visible mistakes, we don't really know why, but the public was for us and really pushed us to do better on the following elements," continued Macii.

"I think we deserve to party tonight."

Only fifth at the end of the short Wednesday, the other Italian duo composed of Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini largely caught up to get the silver.

The bronze medal went to Germans Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel.

The category was particularly open this year because it was deprived of Russian skaters, banned from international competitions due to the war in Ukraine, and who had scored a hat-trick last year in Talinn.

Gubanova on pole ahead of Hendrickx

At the foot of the podium after the court, the French Camille and Pavel Kovalev had to be irreproachable to hope for a medal.

But the spouses made several mistakes during their program and fell back to sixth place.

The French Camille and Pavel Kovalev took 6th place at the European Pairs Figure Skating Championships, in Espoo, Finland, on January 26, 2023 © Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP

Camille Kovalev was handicapped by an ankle injury contracted a few days before the competition.

"It bothered me physically at the end of the program, I was in pain. But I think it especially handicapped me mentally," she explained.

"I was thinking more about that than my breathing so I made mistakes that shouldn't have been there."

The day had started with the short program of the women's category, whose podium had also been monopolized by a trio of Russians last year.

Before Saturday's free, Georgian Anastasia Gubanova (69.81 pts) is in pole position, two points ahead of favorite Loena Hendrickx (67.85 pts).

The Belgian, silver medalist at the last World Championships, made an unusual mistake when she put her hand on the ice when she landed her triple jump combination.

"I'm disappointed with my skating today. It wasn't perfect and I made a big mistake," she said.

"I know I can do a lot better. Luckily I have another day on Saturday to prove what I can do."

The provisional third place is occupied by the Swiss Kimmy Repond (63.83 pts).

The only Frenchwoman engaged, Léa Serna, could only take 26th place, an insufficient ranking to allow her to participate in the freestyle on Saturday.

Brian Joubert's student fell on his triple toe loop before missing his jump sequence.

© 2023 AFP