A flawed routine on Friday could not stop Javier Fernandez becoming the first man in more than 80 years to win six consecutive European figure skating titles as the Spaniard proved he will be among the title favorites at next month’s Winter Olympics.
Despite losing his balance on a double toeloop and stumbling on a triple Salchow, the twice world champion blew away his rivals by more than 20 points with a combined total of 295.55.
“We were not looking for perfection, we were looking for an improvement,” Fernandez told reporters. “I know the mistakes that I had in this free program. I know myself and I know that will not happen at the Olympics.”
Photo: AFP
Russian Dmitri Aliev earned silver with 274.06, while his compatriot, Mikhail Kolyada, improved on his fourth-place finish in the short program to snatch the bronze with 258.90.
Kolyada struggled with his quadruple jumps throughout his free skate, starting with a fall on his opening quad Lutz.
Skating to the music from the Man of La Mancha musical, the 26-year-old Fernandez became the first man since Karl Schaefer in 1936 to win six in a row. Austrian Schaefer won eight successive golds from 1929.
“It’s a step forward to make even more history in figure skating,” Fernandez said. “That’s pretty amazing already. I can be proud of myself for what I’ve got in this career and hopefully I can get much more.”
The Pyeongchang Olympics will be Fernandez’s third and final Games. He is keen to end his nation’s 26-year Winter Olympic medal drought after finishing fourth in Sochi four years ago.
“I’m going to try my best to do it and try to bring the medal to Spain, but I know how hard a competition it is. I know how strong the skaters are and a lot of things can happen,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron took the lead with an upbeat short dance that puts them in pole position to win their fourth consecutive European title.
Dancing to music by British singer Ed Sheeran, the twice world champions produced a solid performance that gave them a comfortable lead with 81.29 points, less than a point adrift of their personal best in the short dance.
Papadakis and Cizeron, who last year became the first ice dancers to break 200 points, were left frustrated as they went out of sync on their twizzles.
“It’s not something that happens often and it’s very frustrating,” Papadakis told reporters. “I guess we will have to work on that.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later