The 2016 ISU European Figure Skating Championships continued Friday in Bratislava, Slovak Republic with the Pairs Short Program.
Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov (RUS) win Pairs Short Program
Olympic Champions Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov of Russia won the Pairs Short Program. Germany’s Aliona Savchenko/Bruno Massot came second and Evgenia Tarasova/Vladimir Morozov of Russia are currently ranked third.
Volosozhar/Trankov opened their Bollywood program with a high triple twist and followed up with a side by side triple Salchow, throw triple flip and level-four spin, death spiral and footwork. The three-time European Champions scored 79.77 points, a seasons best. “It’s a big competition, maybe the biggest for us this season, and we are happy to be back on the ice and will be focused for the free program”, Volosozhar said. “It was not our best skate today and it could have been better, before in our practices we did it better and I think we are ready to get scores of more than 80 like we had before. But it was good enough for the gold medal in the short program”, Trankov noted.
Skating to “Creature de Siam” from “Cirque du Soleil”, Savchenko/Massot produced a huge triple twist, throw triple flip and three-level four elements, but he wobbled on the side by side triple toe. The German Champions picked up 75.54 points. “We are pleased in spite of the little mistake on the triple toe. The toe wasn’t a 100 percent. We’re going with confidence into the competition and we want to show our best in the free skating. We have nothing to lose, we just can win”, Savchenko commented.
Tarasova/Morozovs program to “Lord of the Dance” featured a big triple twist as well and a set of side by side triple toes, but Tarasova touched down with her hand on the throw triple loop. The defending European bronze medalists earned 70.17 points. “We found out we were coming here two weeks ago (after being named as substitutes for injured teammates Yuka Kavaguti/Alexander Smirnov). There was one small mistake but overall I think we skated well and we showed all our emotions. In fact I would say we showed 400 per cent emotion”, Morozov told the press.
Mari Vartmann/Ruben Blommaert (GER) rank fourth at 62.90 points with a clean performance followed by Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres (FRA) at 62.10 points and Nicole Della Monica/Matteo Guarise (ITA) with 61.51 points.
The ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2016 continue the Ladies Free Skating.