Papadakis/Cizeron (FRA) dance to narrow lead in Rhythm Dance

Credit: ISU

Papadakis/Cizeron (FRA) dance to narrow lead in Rhythm Dance

Olympic silver medalists Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron of France edged Russia’s Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov by just 0.05 points in the Rhythm Dance as the ISU European Figure Skating Championships continued in Graz (AUT) on Thursday. Italians Charlene Guignard/ Marco Fabbri (ITA) are currently ranked third.

Papadakis/Cizeron put out an upbeat dance to “Fame”, dressed in colorful outfits matching the theme. The five-time European Champions collected a level four for the Finnstep Pattern Dance sequence, the twizzles and the straight line lift while the pattern dance type step sequence was rated a level three for her and a level four for him and the diagonal steps garnered a level three. The four-time World Champions scored 88.78 points.
“We did a great performance, we are happy about it, we are almost the same points as Nikita (Katsalapov) and Viktoria (Sinitsina). We are not really surprised. We did a good program, we skated well, I'm sure they deserve to be there, too and we'll see on Saturday what happens,” Cizeron said.

Sinitsina/Katsalapov’s lighthearted dance to “Singin’ in the Rain” was highlighted by fast twizzles, a level-four midline step sequence and a rotational lift. The Russian Champions had the same technical base value and set a personal best of 88.73 points to come very close to Papadakis/Cizeron.
“We are feeling just awesome now, we skated with ease, when we finished the program, we still had so much power. Obviously, we were not only skating on emotions, we were controlling all elements, because we, especially me, sometimes could do something that we shouldn’t do. We prepared very well and I think the program today showed it,” Katsalapov commented.

Performing to “Grease”, Guignard/Fabbri produced intricate footwork, earning a level four for the twizzles and the Finnstep Pattern. Their stationary lift was graded a level four as well. The 2019 European bronze medalists set a personal best with 84. 66 points.
“We are finally happy about our performance. This year has been really hard. Because of my injury (tendon injury to his right hand) we couldn’t train properly and once the competitive season has started we just had back-to-back competitions, so we didn’t have time to practice. After nationals we had time to work, to get many run-thrus and to get used to this new program,” Fabbri shared.

2019 European silver medalists Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS) are within striking distance of the podium in fourth place on 83.65 points. They delivered a passionate performance to “Moulin Rouge”. Tiffani Zagorski/Jonathan Guerreiro (RUS), who danced to “The Greatest Showman”, came fifth on 75.10 points followed by 2019 Skate Canada bronze medalists Lilah Fear/Lewis Gibson (GBR) with 74.26 points.

“Poet on ice” Aliev takes first European men’s title for Russia in eight years
Dmitri Aliev of Russia stormed to gold with 26 points to spare to take the first European title for a Russian man since 2012. 16-year-old Artur Danielian, the youngest competitor in the Men’s event, made it one-two for Russia by clinching silver. Morisi Kvitelashvili earned the bronze, becoming the first Georgian man to win a medal at the European Figure Skating Championships.

Performing to “The Sound of Silence”, Aliev landed a quad toe, a quad toe-triple toe as well as six triple jumps and difficult spins and footwork. The only glitch in his expressive and powerful performance was an underrotated quad Lutz. The Russian Champion set a new personal best of 184.44 points and racked up 272.89 points to move up from second and take the title.
“At the end of my program I cried out of happiness and feeling proud. I could not hold back the tears, because right away I had imagines in my head of my path to this result. Now on the podium, I just felt crazily happy, it was a firework inside,” Aliev shared. “I've been writing poetry - the things we live through it's easier for me to work through it by writing on a piece of paper. Our sport is like a song or a poem and we write our program it for you like a poem,” the 20-year-old continued.

Danielian’s musical performance to “La Traviata” was highlighted by a quad Salchow-triple Salchow combination, a quad Salchow and triple Axel-triple toeloop as well as three more triples. However, he fell on a triple Lutz and stumbled on the first triple Axel. The 2018 World Junior silver medalist scored a personal best of 162.11 points and was ranked fourth in the Free Skating, but pulled up from third to second overall at 246.74 points, edging Kvitelashvili by just 0.03 points. “I did not expect to be on the podium. My goal was to show a decent skate, to get my name out on the senior level and prove that I can compete with the senior skaters and look decent compared to them,” Danielian noted. “I did a lot of work before the Europeans, it was good, consistent and skating here well it's the result of the work we have done,” he added.

Kvitelashvili hit a quad Salchow-double toe, triple Axel, quad toe-double toe and four more triples, but crashed on another quad toe in his routine to “Confessa” by Adriano Celentano. He achieved a personal best with 163.94 points as well and moved up one spot to take bronze with 246.71 points. “I am very, very pleased to be finally on the podium. I’ve dreamed for a long time about this. Obviously, it is a shame that not all elements worked out. I wanted to skate my best performance and do a cleaner program. I’ll continue to work on that and hope it will work out in the future,” the 24-year-old Georgian said.

Daniel Grassl (ITA) landed a quad Lutz and quad flip to come second in the Free Skating and fourth overall, moving up from 11th place after the Short Program (244.88 points). 2019 European bronze medalist Matteo Rizzo (ITA) finished fifth (237.01 points) followed by Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) in sixth at 232.07 points. Overnight leader Michal Brezina (CZE) dropped to seventh after several errors (231.25 points).