Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) wins the Men's Free Skating at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Kaunas (LTU) © ISU
Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) defended his second consecutive title in style as the Men’s event at the ISU European Championships 2024 concluded Friday in Kaunas (LTU) with the Free Skating.
Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) golden again
Adam Siao Him Fa of France claimed his second European Championship in style with 20 points to spare. Aleksandr Selevko made Figure Skating history for Estonia, winning the silver and the first European Championship medal for his country. Italy’s Matteo Rizzo leaped from sixth to take the bronze, his third European Championship medal.
Siao Him Fa skated next to last and opened his expressive program to “Departure” and “The Quality of Mercy” with a quad Lutz, but then crashed on the quad toe. Unfazed, the French Champion went on to nail a triple Axel-double Axel sequence, a somewhat shaky quad Salchow, a quad toe-triple toe, as well as two more triple jumps and level-four spins and footwork. And then he surprised everyone with his back flip in the choreo sequence – which is an illegal element and cost him two points deduction. However, Siao Him Fa knew he could afford to lose those two points.
Fa scored 182.04 points to win the Free Skating and racked up 276.17 points overall to defend his title.
“In the beginning of the program I was stressed because I wanted to defend my title, but along the program I started to enjoy skating more for the audience,” Siao Him Fa told the press. “I lived every moment of this program from start to finish and I executed element after element. There were good jumps and a fall, I didn’t give up, I didn’t let it go, I fought through the program,” the 22-year-old said.
“I knew that I would lose some points (on the back flip) but I wanted to push our sport to develop it and to bring that element back. It’s not that dangerous - it looks like it is - it’s scarier to watch it than do it actually. I think it’s going to bring in the future more skaters to try to improve on some new elements and it will probably will bring something new in our sport,” Siao Him Fa concluded.
Selevko stood in third place following the Short Program, which already was a first for Estonia. Then the 22-year-old came out and nailed a quad toe and six triples including an Axel in his powerful performance to “Ad Martem”.
Medal winners (L-R): Aleksandr Selevko (EST), Adam Siao Him Fa (FRA) and Matteo Rizzo (ITA) © ISU
Selevko collected a level four for two spins and the footwork. The Estonian ranked third in the Free Skating with a personal best of 166.94 points but overall moved up to second place at 256.99 points.
“I tried to do my best today, I did have a good skate, but not clean, my second Axel was not a success (he doubled), but I’m really happy today,” Selevko shared.
“I didn’t think about a medal, because for me it’s a crazy thing, but today I did it and it was super surprising for me. It’s a big thing for me. This Europeans was very important. At the beginning of the season I set the goal for myself to skate well at the Europeans and I reached that goal.”
Aleksandr Selevko (EST) in the Men's Free Skating at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Kaunas (LTU) © ISU
2023 ISU European silver medalist Matteo Rizzo sat in sixth after missing his quad toe in the Short Program. But the Italian was determined to fight, even though he is dealing with a hip injury.
“I am still fighting for a medal because everything is possible,” he had said after the Short Program and proved himself right.
Matteo Rizzo (ITA) in the Men's Free Skating at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Kaunas (LTU) © ISU
Rizzo hit the quad and seven triples, he only fell on the second triple Axel. With 170.44 points he was second in the Free Skating and moved up to third overall with 250.87 points to capture the bronze – his third ISU Championship medal after the silver in 2023 and a bronze in 2019.
“The past month was a little bit difficult. I had three weeks of practice and a week of competition so not so much,” the Italian said. “We decided to come here because the doctor said you broke everything already so you can’t do worse than that. So I said I don’t want to watch the Europeans from home and we tried to get everything together. I’m happy with our decision and we made the right choice.”
Gabriele Frangipani (ITA) remained in fourth place at 246.09 points. He made a costly error by repeating one triple jump too many – after two triple toes (the first was planned as a quadruple). 2023 European bronze medalist Lukas Britschgi (SUI) made some uncharacteristic mistakes and slipped from second to fifth place (242.46 points) while 2022 European bronze medalist Deniss Vasiljevs (LAT) rounded up the top six at 237.42 points.
For full results please see here.
Schedule of the event
The schedule of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships is as follows:
Wednesday, January 10: Pairs & Men’s Short Programs
Thursday, January 11: Women’s Short Program, Pairs Free Skating
Friday, January 12: Rhythm Dance & Men’s Free Skating
Saturday, January 13: Women’s Free Skating & Free Dance
Sunday, January 14: Exhibition Gala
For full entries and results, please see the ISU event page and the official website. Follow the discussion on social media using #EuroFigure and #FigureSkating.
Where to watch the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2024:
The ISU European Figure Skating Championships will be live streamed on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. Geo-restrictions will apply in markets where TV rights are in place. You will find the full list in the Where to Watch news here.
Subscribe to the Skating ISU YouTube Channel to receive alerts when the live streams start and when new videos are posted.
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