The first Champions of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships 2012 were decided this evening following a Russian sweep in the Pairs Free Programme.

      In a repeat result of the Short Programme, World silver medallists Tatiana Volosozhar/Maxim Trankov placed first in the Free Programme with 137.65 points giving them a combined score of 210.45 which won them the title of European Pairs Champions 2012. Again taking second and third position were Vera Bazarova/Yuri Larionov (126.90 points)and Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov (113.15 points) in the Free Programme earning them the silver and bronze European medals with combined scores of 193.79 and 171.81 respectively.

      Trankov said: “Of course we are very happy and especially to have all Russian medals. We are one team, one family, and we worked for three medals today so we are very pleased.”

      The Russians also dominated earlier in the day with a one-two in the Men’s Short Programme with World bronze medallist Artur Gachinski pipping Olympic gold medallist Evgeni Plushenko to the top spot by the narrowest margin as they scored 84.80 and 84.71 points respectively. Former European Champion Tomas Verner of Czech Republic came in third with 81.14 points.

      Gachinski was happy with his skate and is enjoying competing against Plushenko, he said: “I think this was my best ever skate so far. I did all the jumps, the spins and the footwork as I had planned. I basically expected such a performance as I was ready for the Short Programme. The free skating is still to come and everything can change. This is a great honour for me to compete in this event with him (Plushenko) and to fight for the medals because I have always looked up to him and I still do.”

      Plushenko added: “Artur showed a high level today, he performed excellent jumps and it is obvious that he won today. It is impossible to fight for me with the kind of program I did today, it is clearly very hard without a quad. But the fact that I am sitting here and that I have a small medal, even though it is a silver one, I am very satisfied with that.”

      Copyright: This is an abridged press release from Europeans 2012 website. Read full text.

      

      This Friday Polina Korobeynikova from Russia will skate to defend her first spot after the Preliminary Round. Russian pair Ekaterina Bobrova/Dmitri Soloviev also leads the Dance competition. The ISU European Figure Skating Championship is taking place in Sheffield, UK. The event ends on Saturday, January 29.

      Source: Europeans2012 (1) and (2). Image courtesy: Europeans2012.