Estonia’s Niina Petrokina produced a personal best to claim the women’s title at the figure skating European championships in front of her home fans in Tallinn on Friday.
“This was my dream and today it came true,” the 20-year-old said.
“I screamed so much my throat hurts, I can barely speak. I don’t even know how I did it, it’s just all the work paying off,” she added.
Photo: AFP
Petrokina went into the free skate final trailing 2023 titleholder Anastasiia Gubanova by a mere 0.05 points.
Her routine to the soundtrack to the 2021 film Dune by Hans Zimmer earned her a podium-topping 208.18 points total.
Gubanova was unable to match that, taking silver almost 10 points behind with a total of 198.61.
Photo: AFP
Belgium’s Nina Pinzarrone, placed fourth after the short program, climbed in to bronze medal position on 191.44.
Petrokina seized her chance after the women’s competition was blown wide open by the withdrawal of reigning champion Loena Hendrickx, after the Belgian ended her season early to have ankle surgery.
Earlier, Italy’s Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri opened their bid for a third consecutive European title by leading the rhythm dance.
To the music of Stevie Wonder and Wilson Picket the Italians scored 84.23 points to lead France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud, who achieved 82.75 for their presentation to Boney M’s Rasputin.
Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson were in third position on 81.57 heading into yesterday’s free dance final.
Fear and Gibson, the two-time continental silver medalists, were looking for a first British triumph since Torvill and Dean in 1994.
The championships were to conclude after press time yesterday with the men’s free skate in which France’s Adam Siao Him Fa was gunning for a third consecutive men’s title after taking the lead in Thursday’s short program.
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