Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte (ITA) win Short Dance
Anna Cappellini/Luca Lanotte of Italy won the Short Dance. Defending champions Gabriella Papadakis/Guillaume Cizeron of France came second and Russia’s Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev follow in third place.
Dancing to Waltz and Polka from “The Merry Widow”, Cappellini/Lanotte picked up a level four for the twizzles, the first part of the Ravensburg Waltz pattern, the step sequence and the rotational lift. The 2014 European Champions posted a new season’s best with 72.31 points. “We tried to improve the short dance a lot. We have made a lot of changes especially in the second half of the dance. We think that it has already paid off but since essentially the whole second part is completely different, it’s not as well trained as the rest of it. Sometimes it has been better than today but we are positive and optimistic for the World Championships”, Cappellini told the post-event press conference.
Papadakis/Cizeron’s dance to “Charms” by Abel Korzeniowski featured four level-four elements including the two sections of the Ravensburger. The reigning World and European Champions scored 70.74 points. “It’s our first international competition this season so it is great to come back and at the same time we did a really good job. We did the best we could do today. Of course there is pressure and of course there are people expecting things but we were kind of in our bubble so we were not thinking about anything too much”, Papadakis commented.
Bobrova/Soloviev danced to “Waltz Masquerade” and “Dance of the Knights” from “Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev. The Waltz pattern and the rotational lift merited a level four while the twizzles and the step sequence were rated a level three. The 2013 European Champions achieved a seasons best score with 68.71 points. “We really enjoyed performing today especially after we missed the last two European Championships. Maybe Russian Nationals gave us more confidence in ourselves and some new energy. Actually each competition gives us something new and Russian Nationals pushed us towards our goals”, Soloviev said.
Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov (RUS), who performed to “Swan Lake”, are less than half a point away in fourth place at 68.33 points. 2015 European bronze medalists Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin (RUS) follow in fifth (66.65 points) and Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri (ITA) came sixth (64.87 points).