Russia’s Evgenia Medvedeva skated off with the gold medal and took her second consecutive European title. Teammate Anna Pogorilaya claimed the silver medal and five-time European Champion Carolina Koster of Italy returned on to the Championships stage with a bronze medal.
Medvedeva once more delivered in her performance to “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”, producing a triple flip-triple toe combination, triple Salchow-triple toeloop as well as four more triples and level-four spins and footwork. However, the last triple toe (in combination with a double Axel) did not count as it was an extra combination and one triple toe too many. Nevertheless, the World Champion broke her own record score in the free skating with 150.79 points and set a new record total score with 229.71, surpassing Yuna Kim’s (KOR) score from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. “I did not beat the record in my short program, so I definitely wanted to do it in the free program. I’m happy I broke the record, but this is not my main goal. Today, I was in a good mood, everything felt fantastic - ice, audience, skating. I just realized how much I like this competition, and wanted to enjoy to the fullest”, the old and new European Champion said.
Pogorilaya landed six clean triples including a triple loop-single loop-triple Salchow combination in her program to “Modigliani Suite” and “Memorial” and earned a level four for her spins and step sequence to score 137.00 points. The reigning World bronze medalist was ranked third in the Free Skating, but overall held on to second place at 211.39 points. “I kind of decided to make my program more difficult and actually did more than I planned. I did all my combinations in the second half. I’m glad, because I still had a lot of power and I was able to manage to change the combinations around so I would not lose points”, the two-time European bronze medalist explained.
Kostner opened her program to “Nisi Dominus” by Antonio Vivaldi with a triple toe-triple toe combination and followed up with three more triples, a double Axel and strong spins and footwork. The five-time European Champion came second in the Free Skating with a seasons best of 138.12 points and overall remained in third place at 210.52 points. “There was some amazing skating tonight and I feel honored to be part of this. I didn’t make any major mistakes, but there is always something you could do better”, the 2012 World Champion said. “It’s been difficult and fun at the same time. There was a little bit of fear, but a lot more joy. I started from scratch, but the journey is not over yet, it is just beginning”, she added, referring to her comeback after sitting out two and a half seasons.
Maria Sotskova (RUS) ranked fourth at 192.52 points. Laurine Lecavelier (FRA) placed fifth (188.10 points) and Nicole Rajicova (SVK) finished sixth (179.70 points).
The ISU European Figure Skating Championships continue Saturday with the Free Dance and the Men’s Free Skating. For more information, full entry lists and results please see: www.isu.org and the official event website http://ostrava2017.eu/en/. #EuroFigure