Pair skaters Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin presented a world-class short program at the German Figure Skating Championships in Oberstdorf and underlined their medal ambitions for the Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in February.
The vice world champions and European champions scored 77.27 points thanks to an almost flawless performance.
Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel are second with 67.11 points. The freestyle in Oberstdorf takes place on Saturday.
The favorites also lead in ice dancing
In the ice dancing competition, the equally favored duo Jennifer Janse van Rensburg and Benjamin Steffan are in the lead. The local heroes collected 77.06 points in the rhythm dance and are therefore close to winning their fifth championship title in a row.
In the men’s competition, after the short program, Kai Jagoda surprisingly came first with 75.35 points. Behind them are defending champion Nikita Starostin (71.49 points) and the 18-year-old young hopeful Genrikh Gartung (65.29 points). In the women’s category, last year’s second-placed Sarah Pesch (51.09 points) leads just ahead of Julia Grabowski (50.87 points).
The German championship is not only an important benchmark for the Olympics, but also for the European Championships in Sheffield in Great Britain in mid-January. The competition is the last chance to recommend yourself for a European Championship nomination.