RHYTHM DANCE<\/b><\/p>\n
The rhythm dance saw some new partnerships attending the European event for the first time, including Jasmine Tessari and Stephan Walker from Switzerland. Jasmine used to skate with Francesco Fioretti, which was also back at the competition with his new partner Carolina Moscheni, representing Italy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n E Loicia Demougeot and Theo Le Mercier from France were also at their first European Championship, taking the available spot left by Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron\u2019s withdrawal. They skated to their season’s best: \u201cwe know we can skate better, but we are happy with what we did. We wanted to make a good impression,” they said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Russia\u2019s Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkin also had their European debut, after earning a bronze medal at the Russian national championship. \u201cWe were a bit nervous,” said Smolkin. \u201cWe tried to do our best and we are happy to be here between the best European couples. We want to show what we can do and we want to achieve more in the future.”<\/p>\n At their third European championship together, Lithuania\u2019s Alison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius delivered a very convincing rhythm dance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were a little nervous, but we did our best. Our goal is to enjoy ourselves and show who we are as skaters\u201d, Ambruvelicius said. With Allison being unable to obtain Lithuanian citizenship, they won\u2019t be able to compete at the Olympics despite of having qualified. \u201cThat news was very hard to take. It was disappointing, but we have a plan for this season and will keep working on our goals,” Reed said.<\/p>\n Something that everyone was looking forward to was the battle between the two Spanish teams for the spot at the Olympic Games and world championship. The Spanish federation decided to give Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz, and Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin three competitions to show their abilities, with the team earning the highest combined score winning the Olympic spot. The first two competitions, Finlandia Trophy and the Spanish nationals, were both won by Smart and Diaz.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe felt very relaxed and we are not focusing on the Olympic race too much, as this is still a competition and anything can happen,” Smart said. \u201cWe went out there and had a solid performance, showing what we have been training for.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been taking each competition as a separate one,” Diaz continued. \u201cWe are focussing on ourselves, and we will try to do our best in the free.”<\/p>\n Sara Hurtado shared that they felt confident getting on the ice, but that it didn\u2019t really translate <\/span>into the score: \u201cit has been a very intense season for us, so we are happy being able to keep up and not letting the nerves eat us alive.”<\/p>\n The rhythm dance ended with Italy\u2019s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri in third place, and two Russian couples at the top: Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin in second place, and the current European and world champions Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The top couples shared their thoughts at the press conference.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Following their withdrawal from the free dance at Russian nationals, Sinitsina and Katsalapov were happy to be back at a completion of this calibre.<\/p>\n \u201cToday was a really strong competition and a great fight,” Katsalapov said. \u201cMy back has been bothering me for almost two years. After Nationals, I went to hospital and doctors really did everything they could to help me. I still have the problem and I can only solve it during the off season, but at least now I am ok.”<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel great, we are happy with our skate today,” Sinitsina continued. \u201cWhen the ISU announced the theme we have to admit it was not easy for us, it is a very different music choice from what we would do, but we ended up picking the street dance and falling in love with it.”<\/p>\n Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin entered the competition as Russian champions.<\/p>\n \u201cToday we skated at our very best,” Stepanova said. \u201cWe worked very hard to prepare for this event and for the Olympics, which is the most important competition of the season.”<\/p>\n \u201cWhen training, we take it step by step to build our programmes,” Bukin said. \u201cEvery team is working very hard and we are all moving forward. This is not the first time we come to the European Championship, so we know what it is like.”<\/p>\n The Italians found today\u2019s competition very satisfying.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have struggled with this dance this season, but we finally got it and the score was great,” Fabbri said. \u201cWhen the ISU announced the style it was not easy to understand what to skate on. Michael Jackson has a lot of songs that are allowed this season, so we decided to skate on his music: I love to wear my shiny jacket and to impersonate him.”<\/p>\n \u201cWe found that skating today was quite easy for us, probably because we have been focusing so much on not catching Covid that we got distracted from the pressure of the event\u201d, Fabbri added. \u201cWe have been competing for a long time, but we will continue next season for sure.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n FREE DANCE <\/b><\/p>\n The free dance ended with some changes in the standings from the rhythm dance, but with the top three couples confirming their respective positions.<\/p>\n Exceeding their personal best by almost six points, Great Britain\u2019s Sasha Fear and George Waddell went up two places at their Europeans debut, skating on their Tchaikovsky based free programme.<\/p>\n Natalia Kaliszek and Maksym Spodyriev from Poland dropped from ninth to sixteenth place.<\/p>\n “We made a few mistakes in the spin, so after the competition we will focus on making everything clean,” Kaliszek said.<\/p>\n Czech Republic\u2019s Natalie Taschlerova and Filip Taschler also dropped two places<\/p>\n \u201cA little mistake costed us some points. The goal for the Olympics is to show what we can do and to enjoy it,” said Taschler.<\/p>\n Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud from France gained one position, confirming their top ten result with a ninth place and an overall career best.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are first substitute at the Olympics and Worlds (the only spot that France has is currently taken by Papadakis and Cizeron), so we have to prepare for this,” Brissaud.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis time, everything was different: in Graz (their first European championship) we didn\u2019t know what to expect, but here we had the right experience and we wanted to fight,” Lopareva said.<\/p>\n Six years on from their first Europeans appearance, Great Britain\u2019s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson delivered a very engaging routine on their Lion King music, and despite achieving a season’s best score they had to pay the price for a mistake on the twizzles that made them drop one place.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a really fun time and we are proud of what we achieved,” Fear said. \u201cWe made a lot of changes before this competition. We have to work on consistency and be strict with ourselves, and get ready for Beijing\u201d.<\/p>\n The Spanish battle came to an end with Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz winning their spot to the Olympics and World Championships. They delivered a very solid free dance that allowed them to reach an overall total of 196.85 (and a fourth place), confirming their distance from Sara Hurtado and Kirill Khaliavin that ended with an overall total of 191.90.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been a long run to get the Olympic spot and we are both happy it is now over and confirmed,” Smart said. \u201cThis performance wasn\u2019t our favourite, but we did well and know that we can do better. We are now going to prepare for the Olympics, with a lot of face masks and training on the way!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very happy but mentally exhausted. We achieved a record score for Spain, and the highest position ever for a Spanish ice dance couple,” Diaz added.<\/p>\n Hurtado and Khaliavin congratulated their national \u201crivals\u201d on their achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt very good, I couldn\u2019t ask for more\u201d, Khaliavin said. \u201cThis was possibly the best dance through the whole season for us, if not of our entire career.”<\/p>\n \u201cI feel proud of our job here,” Hurtado added, \u201cand what we have achieved so far as a team\u201d.<\/p>\n The top three teams were celebrated at the victory ceremony, where they collected their medals. This is what they shared immediately after it at the press conference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt very easy to skate for me today, I was really enjoying myself,” Sinitsina said. \u201cThe atmosphere on the rink was great, we were so much supported by the crowd. These Europeans will be in our hearts for a very long time.”<\/p>\n \u201cOur free programme is about our life and our career, it is about what we felt during our journey and still feel. I love my white dress, I feel light as a feather, a flying snowflake. It will come with me to China for sure, but I actually have another one which I am still keeping for now.”<\/p>\n \u201cToday is a special day,” Katsalapov said. \u201cOur first Europeans victory was bright, and this time it is even a bit brighter. Winning this competition before the Olympics is a huge motivation for us.”<\/p>\n \u201cI have mixed feelings about our performance today, I know there were a few little things that did not affect the level of the programme but were there. We need to clean those up and feel confident. Our free programme is based on two Rachmaninov pieces performed by David Garrett, the well-known violinist. We fell in love with the first part three years ago, and we were waiting for the right moment to skate on it. The second part changes completely, and at the end we give all the energy and the emotions we have.”<\/p>\n Stepanova and Bukin were very pleased with their skate and with their progress overall. \u201cWe are happy we earned almost five points more than what we had at nationals,” Bukin said. \u201cWe made some changes to the free dance: the levels of the elements are ok, but there is still room to grow.”<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our second silver medal at the Europeans: it is an important result for us, particularly in the Olympic season\u201d, Stepanova said. \u201cWe had a chance to work between Nationals and Europeans and we are thrilled with what we have done today. We know what we want our free dance to look like and we are trying to project that lightness and gentleness that our Romeo and Juliet programme requires\u201d.<\/p>\n Guignard and Fabbri earned their second European medal skating on their Atonement programme.<\/p>\n \u201cOur coach couldn\u2019t be with us today because she tested positive to Covid\u201d, Fabbri said. \u201cIt was our first time without her in twelve years, it was mentally and physically very difficult. We are very proud with what we achieved, particularly considering that this is the last test before the Olympics\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWith years and experience we try to focus on our feelings in the programme, rather than each single element. We only skated our free programme once last season, so we wanted to bring those emotions back this year: it allows us to show our true feelings on the ice\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Matteo Morelli | Photos by Robin Ritoss After hosting the event 12 years ago, Estonia welcomed back the European Championship to its capital, Tallinn. Tondiraba Ice Hall witnessed top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1280","_gspb_post_css":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[321,142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2021-2022-event-recaps","category-featured"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=254%2C150&ssl=1",254,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=300%2C177&ssl=1",300,177,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=768%2C454&ssl=1",768,454,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-post-main-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?resize=400%2C250&ssl=1",400,250,true],"et-pb-post-main-image-fullwidth":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?resize=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?resize=400%2C284&ssl=1",400,284,true],"et-pb-portfolio-module-image":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?resize=510%2C382&ssl=1",510,382,true],"et-pb-portfolio-image-single":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?fit=957%2C566&ssl=1",957,566,true],"et-pb-gallery-module-image-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?resize=400%2C516&ssl=1",400,516,true],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022Europeans-6973.jpg?resize=45%2C45&ssl=1",45,45,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team IDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/author\/idcadmin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"by Matteo Morelli | Photos by Robin Ritoss After hosting the event 12 years ago, Estonia welcomed back the European Championship to its capital, Tallinn. Tondiraba Ice Hall witnessed top […]","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GOSM-7ig","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28046,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28040\/revisions\/28046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Solene](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/22EC-RD-Ignateva-Gaidajenko2982.jpg?resize=314%2C400&ssl=1\")
stonia\u2019s Solene Mazingue and Marko Gaidajenko (pictured, right) were the first to qualify for the free dance. This was their first European: \u201cI am really proud of ourselves as this season is quite a long one for us, competing in both junior and senior categories. I loved skating in the city where I was born and live,” Gaidajenko said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ice-dance.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SD-HK-ESP2022-copy.jpg?resize=957%2C566&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n