Ice dancing has become the only form at the current European Figure Skating Championships, in which winners of the last tournament participate. The French Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron did not just come to Graz to defend the title - they set their sights on holding since 1976 a record for the number of titles held by Lyudmila Pakhomova and Alexander Gorshkov. The French do not have enough two gold medals to become leaders, but they can catch up with the great Soviet dancers in the next two days.
The first of the Russians were Tiffany Zagorski and Jonathan Gureiro. The return to the European scene was too exciting for the couple. The partner could not cope with emotions, trying to embody his vivid image from the film “The Greatest Showman,” - during the Finstep he barely kept his balance.
This part of the Russian duet in general turned out to be the most unsuccessful - the referees could also pay attention to several steps that got out of the music. All the other components of a good dance were present at Zagorski and Gureiro, so that in general they could be satisfied with the assessment. The pair scored 75.10 points, losing quite a bit to their season record, and took an intermediate first place.
The Russians remained leaders until the appearance of the main stars of the evening. Polish representatives Natalia Kaliszek and Maxim Spodyrev who spoke after them were mistaken in the pattern and twizzles. The British Laila Fir and Lewis Gibson generally managed to hire, but their finestep turned out to be the first level, and the couple lost less to Zagorski and Gureyro.
Former Russian dancers Maria Kazakova and George Revia, now playing for Georgia, after their victory in the final of the Junior Grand Prix, showed a new rhythm dance with a completely failed middle section. Finally, the Spaniards Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz pleased with the cool transformation into the characters of the film "Briolin", but delayed with support and immediately fell below third place.
The final group of participants was compared to the previous one simply from a different league. Last year's bronze medalists Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri literally melted the ice with their incendiary dance, in which great attention was paid to the technique. Even at Finnish steppe, Italians earned a fourth level of difficulty, which seemed impossible for anyone that day. They scored 84.66 points - now other pairs had to orientate on this result.
Even Papadakis and Sizeron needed to keep these numbers in mind during their Aerobics. This time, the usual drive in their performance was a little less, and the judges were no longer in a hurry to rewrite world records. One of them wanted to evaluate finestep for two, the five got only two elements, the technical panel was not satisfied with the steps. The components of the French were still fantastic, and they allowed a margin to block the result of Guignard and Fabbri - five-time European champions earned 88.78 points.
Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin needed to compete with the Italians, but the judges did not give them such a chance. The dance of the Russians was informative and passionate - one final kiss was worth it. But in technology, the difference between them was one and a half points - only twizzles and support received the highest levels. Stepanova and Bukin naturally outperformed Ginyar and Fabbri in the components, but not in the total score, which amounted to 83.65 points.
The Spaniards Sarah Hurtado and Cyril Halyavin decided not to interfere in the main struggle. Their problems began already in twizzles and continued at the finestep. Both elements were so low that the couple did not even stay in the strongest workout. They scored 73.44 points, so that on Saturday’s medal draw Zagorski and Gureyro will be able to present one of their last free skates.
The rhythm dance was closed by Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. Even before the start of music, the Russians surprised the audience - the partner decided to appear in a sweater instead of a jacket, destroying the established image of the hero of the musical “Singing in the Rain”. But if it was the change of wardrobe that helped Katsalapov to become free and perfectly perform all the elements, including the rebellious twizzles, because of which the duet was left without an award a year ago, then this step was brilliant.
Sinitsin and Katsalapov hovered over the whole dance over ice and aroused delight among the judges. With the same technical base, the Russians beat Papadakis and Sizeron in bonuses for the elements - even such a modest and essentially insignificant victory recently seemed impossible. In the components of the two leading duets in Europe, a draw was recorded - the Russians were recognized as the best in artistry and music transfer, the couples scored the same points in the connecting elements, and the French won the championship in building the program and owning the skate.
The latter factor was decisive in the dispute over the small gold medal. Sinitsina and Katsalapov lost only Papadakis and Sizeron five hundredths of a point - the French have not had such a small advantage over their rivals since the last Olympic cycle. The question of their sixth European title has been suspended and may be postponed until next time. The Russian duet has already done a lot for figure skating - it returned the intrigue that had disappeared for several years to ice dancing.