The women's competition ended as expected:. Having won gold, Evgenia Medvedeva also demonstrated good vocals by singing the Russian anthem.
Medvedeva could only lose to herself
Our young stars, the oldest of whom is 17, and the youngest - 16, are very different and reacted differently to their skates and results. Elena Radionova, who was the first in the strongest warm-up, changed her costume for the European Championship. A student of Inna Goncharenko is skating to the soundtrack to "Titanic". So they came up with the outfit of the VIP-passenger of the legendary liner for Elena. The mood was also matched, although the vice-champion of Europe-2015 fulfilled everything planned and repeated last year's result. “Apparently, the rivals became stronger, since they failed to win,” the two-time European vice-champion summed up her performance in Bratislava with a sad voice.
Perhaps she used the plural in vain. Stronger in this season only Evgenia Medvedev. The student Eteri Tutberidze was sincerely happy about both the victory and the highest scores received despite falling from a double axel. Although Evgenia could only lose to herself. She has a gorgeous program with an amazingly complex set of elements, which, by the way, was rejected by Yulia Lipnitskaya last season. The director Ilya Averbukh, however, did not grieve for a long time. A new star has grown up in Tutberidze's group, willingly picking up the baton.
After the "donut" for the uncounted element in the short program, Anna Pogorilaya could probably only count on the "bronze". She won it. Despite two falls, the skater who repeated last year's achievement was satisfied with her rental. “I was still a child in Stockholm,” Anna admitted honestly. - Now I have matured and I perceive everything differently. I understand that it is not always possible to skate cleanly, and you need to be ready for this. "
Latvian figure skater Angelina Kučvalska, who took 4th place, was more than ten points behind. The distance between Russian and other European skaters is enormous. To qualify for the national team at the end of the Russian championship is much more difficult than becoming a medalist of the European championship.
Russian hegemony is not needed
At last year's European Championships in Stockholm, the entire podium in the competition sports couples occupied by Russian skaters. They have serious competitors in Bratislava. Contrary to the expectations of Alena Savchenko, five-time champion world and two-time bronze medalist of the Olympics, who won these titles together with the Robin Sholkovs, did not leave the big sport after Sochi-2014. The Ukrainian maiden, who has been playing for Germany for a long time, is simply obsessed with the idea of becoming an Olympic champion.
To achieve this goal, she paired up with the Frenchman Bruno Massu. It took more than a year to get him permission to skate for Germany. Savchenko's fans even collected 30 thousand euros on social networks to “buy out a partner”. As it turned out, they did not try in vain.
In Bratislava, the new German couple immediately announced their claim to the podium. Although, according to the two-time Olympic champion Maxim Trankov, the new duet is being promoted so that there is no absolute hegemony of Russian couples in Europe. Trankov himself, together with Tatyana Volosozhar, did not show his best performance in the short program. As the skaters noted, they lost three or four points due to mistakes in the performance of well-developed elements.
The reason Trankov called ... the composition of the Russian national team. Due to injuries of Yuko Kawaguchi and Fyodor Klimov, tickets to Bratislava were hurriedly issued to our team's substitute, for pairs Evgeny Tarasov - Vladimir Morozov and Christina Astakhova - Alexey Rogonov.
When you know that in case of failure you will be backed up by the same experienced and skilled teammates, you ride in a completely different way, '' Trankov admitted. - And the stunt doubles even look at you differently, taking away some of the energy. It is very difficult to be the leader of the backup team.
It remains to be hoped that the double Olympic champions still cope with such a difficult role.
Bratislava
results
Women. Final position: 1. Medvedev - 215.45; 2. Radionova - 209.99; 3. Pogorilaya (all - Russia) - 187.05; 4. Kuchvala (Latvia) - 176.99
Sports couples. Short program. 1. Volosozhar / Trankov (Russia) - 79.77; 2. Savchenko / Mass (Germany) - 75.54; 3. Tarasova / Morozov - 70.17 ... 7. Astakhova / Rogonov (both pairs - Russia) - 60.63.
The venue for the 2016 European Championship figure skating became the Ondrej Nepela Winter Stadium in Bratislava. The fate of this skater was tragic. Having won everything in amateur sports, including the Olympic title, Nepela secured permission to compete in the American ice show. The members of this troupe, unfortunately for Ondrei, turned out to be representatives of non-traditional sexual orientation. They managed to convert to their "faith" an intellectual from a socialist country who had a prestigious law degree and spoke five languages. Nepela died very young, at the age of 48, from AIDS. This does not detract from the merits of the great athlete, and the Bratislava authorities decided to permanently put Nepela's name on the city map.
And again the mysterious Kovtun
The arena bearing the name of Nepela is old, if not ancient. She also remembers the famous rental of Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev at the 1973 World Cup, when the music suddenly turned off in the middle of the program. This story is overgrown with legends and myths. The previous European Championship in Bratislava took place 15 years ago. Two generations of skaters have already changed.
The Russian national team at EURO 2016 has the maximum representation in all disciplines, but the chances of winning prizes are different. In women's competitions, there are simply no competitors for our young trio - Evgenia Medvedeva, Elena Radionova and Anna Pogorilaya. These girls beat two Olympic champions, as well as the current world and European champion. American women with Japanese women can still compete with Russian figure skaters for medals, but now there are no rivals in the Old World.
In men, the favorite is the reigning European champion Javier Fernandez. He can only lose to himself. If he makes a couple of mistakes in the short program and two or three in the free program. Then the guys who have included four or five quadruple jumps in their programs, provided that they are performed flawlessly, can create a sensation. Among the "dark horses" and three-time champion of Russia Maxim Kovtun.
Two other Russian figure skaters (both from St. Petersburg) will make their debut at the European Championship and set themselves more modest tasks: Mikhail Kolyada plans to show in an arbitrary program, in addition to a quadruple sheepskin coat, and a quadruple salchow, which is good at training, and Alexander Petrov did not force the preparation of difficult elements. Instead, at the gathering of Alexei Mishin's group in Tartu, he was given a new demonstration program.
Not all "survived" to Bratislava
Only Ukrainian Alena Savchenko and Frenchman Bruno Massa can compete with Russian sports pairs. Unable to realize her olympic dream together with Robin Sholkovy, the five-time world champion and winner of two bronze Olympic medals, contrary to expectations, after Sochi did not leave amateur sports, but found a new partner. The debut of the couple, who had been waiting for an absentee letter from the French Figure Skating Federation for their partner for a long time, took place at the Challenger Series tournament in Tallinn. The duet made a good impression, and Savchenko promised that by the time of the European Championships they and Massu would complicate the programs.
Of the original composition of the Russian national team in pairs, formed as a result of the national championship in Yekaterinburg, only two-time Olympic champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov survived to Bratislava. Due to injury, the partners will not come to defend the title won a year ago, Yuko Kawaguchi and Alexander Smirnov, and due to back problems with a partner, the winners of the recent Grand Prix final Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov. They will be replaced by Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, who, while training in the Moser group, had long known about the trip to Bratislava, and Kristina Astakhova - Alexey Rogonov. As their coach Artur Dmitriev assures them, his students are now in combat uniform.
All three dance couples, selected for the European Championship in Yekaterinburg, are ready to perform at the Ondrei Nepela arena. Everyone, with a perfect rental of their dances, can get on the pedestal. It is difficult to say which step is on. Italians Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte are good this season. In what form are reigning champions World and Europe Gabriela Papadakis and Guillaume Sizeron, it's hard to say. Due to the serious injury of their partner, the French missed the Grand Prix series. At the French Championship, they looked, according to experts, good, but how the international teams of referees will assess the rentals, no one undertakes to predict.
Bratislava
Schedule. European Championship 2016
12.15. Women. Short program.
19.30. Men. Short program
14.30. Dancing. Short dance
19.45. Men. Free program
15.45. Couples. Short program
20.00. Women. Free program
12.00. Couples. Free program
16.30. Dancing. Free dance
16.30. Demonstration performances
The composition of the Russian national team
Men. Maxim Kovtun, Mikhail Kolyada, Alexander Petrov
Women. Evgenia Medvedeva, Anna Pogorilaya, Elena Radionova
Couples. Tatiana Volosozhar / Maxim Trankov, Christina Astakhova / Alexey Rogonov, Evgeniya Tarasova / Vladimir Morozov
Dancing. Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitry Soloviev, Victoria Sinitsyna / Nikita Katsalapov, Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin
The Junior World Figure Skating Championships in Sofia will be considered one of the historic events in this sport. For girls, it is now becoming the norm to perform quadruple jumps, which previously only men were capable of. And the first to reach a new level of figure skating was the Russian woman Alexandra Trusova.
Strictly speaking, women's quadruple jumps have previously become the secret weapon of individual athletes. So, the Frenchwoman Surya Bonali was the first to try to perform jumps with four revolutions, but officially none were counted. The breakthrough was made by the Japanese woman Miki Ando in 2002, however, new super-complex elements did not come into fashion: the competition was not yet so high as to take risks without a reason.
Trusova set a new trend this season. First, she tried to perform a quadruple salchow in the final of the Junior Grand Prix, but did not twist it and fell. The same thing happened at the Russian Championship among girls. But the student Eteri Tutberidze did not give up and in the final of the Russian Cup, which took place simultaneously with the Olympics, she not only made salchow, but also tried to perform a quadruple toe loop. The 13-year-old athlete went to Sofia with the intention of completing what she had begun and showing both jumps in a free program.
Trusova coped with her task. In the free program (in the short program, even junior skaters cannot enter quadruple jumps), the Russian woman performed salchow cleanly, having received an increase of two points for him. Next, the skater went to the sheepskin coat and landed not too beautifully, but this jump also went a plus - this was the first time in history when a girl performed a quadruple sheepskin coat in a competition. And after all, not only this Trusova amazed the judges: in the second half of the program she had a cascade of lutz - rittberger, which is business card Alina Zagitova, and flip - sheepskin coat.
The Olympic champion is now stripped of all of her world records in junior skating. V short rental Trusova bypassed her friend training group a long time ago, and now she added 15 points to last year's achievement of Zagitova in the free program and 17 to the total score. Trusova won the junior world championship with a score of 225.52 points - with such figures, she would have claimed medals at the Pyeongchang Olympics, since there would not be such strict restrictions on the number of jumps as juniors have. True, Trusova will not be able to perform at an adult level for a long time. She will reach the required age for this only by the European Championships in 2020.
Alyona Kostornaya took the second place after Trusova in Sofia. While everyone is discussing the rivalry between Evgenia Medvedeva and Alina Zagitova, these two juniors have been fighting with each other for a long time both within the Tutberidze group and beyond. Kostornaya does not perform quadruple jumps, but she shows everything she can in the second half of the programs. Her most difficult element is the flip-toe loop cascade, for which she gets even higher marks than Trusova.
Another Russian athlete Stanislava Konstantinova gained fame during the last adult Russian championship. Then she became the third in the free program and the fourth following the results of two rentals. In Sofia, a 17-year-old St. Petersburg woman performed below her capabilities and also remained one step away from the podium.
Men
The phenomenon of Eteri Tutberidze extends not only to girls. She has trained and continues to train men too, but almost no one has achieved serious success under her leadership. The first was Alexey Erokhov. This season, he immediately established himself as one of the best juniors thanks to two victories at the Grand Prix stages. It was not possible to confirm the status at the final tournament due to an injury, but the 18-year-old Muscovite had recovered by the planetary championship in Sofia.
Erokhov includes three quadruple jumps in his free program: first a sheepskin coat in a cascade and salchow, and then a solo sheepskin coat in the second half. At the World Championships, the whole plan could not be fulfilled, the judges counted only the cascade. But the worthy performance of all the other jumps was enough to become the first Russian figure skater in 16 years to win gold.
True, we must remember that shortly before free program the main favorite of the tournament, Alexei Krasnozhon, representing the United States, starred. Erokhov will be able to compete with him only when he fully learns the quadruple rittberger and flip, which he already does in training. The Russian scored 231.52 points in Sofia - this is still not enough for the junior level. A year ago, Dmitry Aliyev, a participant in the Pyeongchang Olympics, won silver with a score of 247.31 points.
The second place in Sofia was taken by another Russian Arthur Danielyan. In his speech, one can note a rare and rather valuable cascade of triple axel - rittberger - triple salchow. Danielyan has not yet performed quadruple jumps, but at the age of 14 this is quite acceptable. Already now he has managed to bypass the third Italian Matteo Rizzo, who has experience of performing at the last Olympic Games.
Couples and dancing
In the world of figure skating, the results of juniors and juniors have a certain meaning: the transition to the adult level usually does not take long, and many current stars made a name for themselves at a very young age. With pair skating and ice dancing, everything is somewhat more complicated. Very rarely, representatives of these two disciplines not only show results comparable to those of juniors, but generally stay together at a new stage of their sports career.
Nevertheless, it is also worth noting the successes of Russian figure skaters. For the first time since 1986, representatives of one country took the entire podium in the competition of sports couples. The champions were Daria Pavlyuchenko and Denis Khodykin, who have a triple twist of a quadruple level and support for the level of adult skating.
The second place was taken by Polina Kostyukovich and Dmitry Yalin, who have a quadruple twist and a cascade of triple salchow - rittberger - triple salchow in their assets. True, a couple from St. Petersburg made many mistakes and barely snatched silver from Anastasia Mishina and Alexander Galyamov - the two Russian duos shared only 0.75 points.
Gold in ice dancing also went to Russia, which made it possible to repeat absolute record 1996, when all the medals of the highest standard went to Russian figure skaters. The best dancers this year were Anastasia Skoptsova and Kirill Alyoshin, who earlier this season won the junior Grand Prix finals, and in 2016 became the winners of the Youth Olympics in the team tournament. Bronze in Sofia was won by Arina Ushakova and Maxim Nekrasov.
Winter is not only a time for joy and fun, New Year's holidays and holidays, but also a chance to enjoy your favorite sports, especially figure skating. After all, you must admit that it is hardly possible to find and meet such a person in the world who would simply not love him.
The European Figure Skating Championships 2016-2017 will take place and will be held in the Czech city of Ostrava in the famous "Czech Arena".
It should be said that it is in this place that the championship will be held for the first time. Although, regarding the holding of the championships, the Czech Republic will open its spaces for competitions for the sixth time.
Championship participants.
Many are interested and worried about the question of who will become a participant in the championship this season. First of all, the championship is available to all skaters from their European countries and members of the International Skating Union, who at the time of the tournament have reached the age of 15. Remember that nowadays Israel, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are also considered to be European countries. As a rule, according to the results of the European Championship, each of the countries receives the right to nominate from one to three athletes in each of the disciplines. According to the regulations and the charter of the championship, each of the declared athletes must necessarily achieve the minimum technical assessment, which he recruits by his participation in international competitions held before the start of the European Championship. 
Results by which participants can be admitted.
Probably, it should be recalled that for each category of athletes they have their own, individual.
- 1 singles men - short program 25 points, free - 45 points.
- 2. Women singles - short program 20 points, free 36 points.
- 3. Pair skating - short program 20 points, free not less than 36.
- 4. Sports dances - 19 and 29 points.
As can be seen from the presented results and ratings, it is most difficult for men, although tough and tough selection all pass. After all, you must admit that only the strongest and most worthy get to the championship of this level.
Russian team.
As for our team, here it is worth mentioning the following very interesting data and facts. As you know, the number of athletes for the championship from each country is determined depending on the results of last year's championship. And what does this give our team? Yes, first of all, the fact that the team will receive the right to maximum representation, that is, three people in each of the declared disciplines, and this is good chance and the opportunity to win.
As for last year's tournament, it is worth noting the excellent performance and skill of the following athletes.
- Firstly, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, who, as a result, became the champion in women's single skating.
- Secondly, Alexander Smirnov and Yuko Kawaguchi. This is our couple who won gold in pair skating.
It is thanks to them that our team has very high chances of winning this season and championship. The 2016-2017 European Figure Skating Championships are rightfully considered the most serious and difficult test for many athletes. But, today, the championship management has pleased the fans of this sport with very good news, since the championship will become even more interesting from the next season. Ask what is the reason? Everything is simple, as several exciting types of competitions and categories will be introduced, which will also attract great attention, both on the part of athletes and TV viewers and fans. According to statistics and forecasts figure skating every year it becomes more popular and demanded sport in absolutely any country and corner of the world, as evidenced by a large number of participants in the European Championship.
Hello everyone!
The European Championship is coming to an end, it remains to wait for the dancing couples, while in other events there are already results.
By tradition, let's start with girls) 
To be honest, there was no intrigue here, since it was obvious that Russian girls could take the podium. Zhenya Medvedeva's gold, Lena Radionova's silver, Anya Pogorila's bronze.
I believe that Lena should have been the first in KP, but the judges held back the marks (as I understand it :)
We watch and enjoy!
Florent Amodio announced the end of his amateur career and decided to do so at the European Championships ... As a result, he took fourth place, having given out excellent skates in free dance ...
Javier Fernandez became a four-time European champion. But the silver result of Alexei Bychenko was a pleasant surprise. Considering that after the CP, Maxim Kovtun was the second after Fernandez ... But the Russian did not cope with the nerves in the PP ... True, it is worth saying thanks to Max that at least he went to jumps, and did not start, as usual, for butterflies)
Mikhail Kolyada is in 5th place 
And Sasha Petrov on the 8th 
We were pleased with the golden results and dance Sport! A pair of Volosozhar-Trankov become four-time European champions in a fight with a silver pair Savchenko-Massot. The Germans lost another Russian couple Tarasova / Morozov. 
The free program of Alena Savchenko and Bruno Massot does not open due to copyright restrictions :(
The third Russian pair Astakhova / Rogonov became the seventh at the Old World Championship. 
So far, the results of a short dance among dancing couples are known, and the alignment is as follows: 1st place is taken by Italians Cappellini / Lannot, the second place is taken by the 2015 world champions - the French Papadikis / Sizeron, the third place went to our compatriots Bobrova / Soloviev.
Since I had not expressed my personal opinion before, I will express myself in the dances) I think that Papadikis / Sizeron should win, and they were held back in CT. I liked their short dance very much. Sensual, light and piercing. Incredible, I fell in love. Although last year did not support everyone's enthusiasm for this pair.
I would have awarded the Italians with silver. But Bobrova and Solovyov, I would not give the bronze, for me, so the same Sinitsina / Katsalapov and Stepanova / Bukin look much more advantageous ...
As soon as the final results of the dancing couples appear, I will certainly inform about it!
Thank you all for your attention!)
Updated 30/01/16 20:01:
As promised, I am adding to the post)
First place (and deservedly so) for the French Papadikis / Sizeron!
UNREAL! I have no other words. I hope they will confirm their title of world champions and maybe become an OCH.
That's, really, why, why ours can't do that? The very same Stepanova / Bukin beat them at the junior level, and at the adult they were a little blown away ...
Second place (rightly) for the Italians Capellini / Lannot
Bobrova / Soloviev retained third place ... Not a masterpiece, IMHO :(