Italian ice dancers claim third straight European title

TALLINN: Italian figure skaters Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri swept to a third straight European ice dance title in Tallinn on Saturday.

The pair had led after the rhythm dance and secured victory in the free dance with a 212.12 points tally.

France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud took silver almost six points adrift (206.76), just ahead of Britain’s bronze medallists Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson (206.02).

“I’m very happy this time because without wanting to brag, we really dominated (the competition),” said Fabbri.

The Italians were firm favourites to notch up their hat-trick at what was their 13th European championships.

Fear and Gibson were runners-up to Guignard and Fabbri in 2023/2024 and were looking to supply Britain with a first European ice dance title since Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1994.

The competition at the Estonian capital’s Tondiraba Ice Hall concludes later Saturday with the men’s free dance.

France’s Adam Siao Him Fa is on target for his third consecutive European title following the short programme.

He leads with 93.12 points from Georgia’s Nika Egadze (91.94) and Poland’s Vladimir Samoilov (85.98).