European figures, Gutmann is there after Kostner: it’s bronze!

After Rita Trapanese’s bronze and silver in 1971 and 1972, after Susan Driano’s bronze in 1977 and after the unreachable five golds, two silvers and four bronzes of the legendary Carolina Kostner between 2006 and 2018, Italy returns to the podium of the women’s European figure championships. The credit goes to Lara Naki Gutmann, a 23-year-old from Trentino (from Rovereto), who in Sheffield, starting from fourth place in the short program on Wednesday, finished in third place. Completing the great team performance was Sarina Joos’ sixth and Anna Pezzetta’s eighth. The future is around the corner. The Italians, in the specialty, in a women’s competition that began in 1930, had never done so well overall. The podium at the Utilita Arena is prestigious: the gold, the second in a row after that of Tallinn 2025, goes to the Estonian Niina Petrokina, the silver to the Belgian Loena Hendrickx, champion in Kaunas 2024.

Other margins

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It will be Lara – father Paul is from South Tyrol, mother Claudia from Milan – as defined for several weeks, having overcome the competition of Sarina and Anna, to represent Italy, in twenty days, at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympics. In the team and individual events. The bearer of the Fiamme Oro, curiously (but up to a certain point) became passionate about skating at the age of three, following the competitions of the 2006 Turin Games and the evolutions of Carolina Kostner in particular. The Gardena native, who “allowed” Lara to collaborate with her reference choreographer, the Canadian Lori Nichol, was in the stands applauding her during the free practice that earned her the medal… Gabriele Minchio’s student (in Trento) was in the sixth European Championship of her career, with already two placings in the top eight: sixth in Tallinn 2025 and eighth in Espoo 2023. As in the short, interpreted to the tune of the soundtrack of the film “La Legge Di Lidia Poët”, not even in the free, “Jaws”, was she free from mistakes, especially in some jumps. But she still managed to overtake Pezzetta, third after the short, as well as the Belgian Nina Pinzarrone, second. There is certainly no shortage of room for improvement…

Dance and men

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On Saturday evening, on the last day of the British event, Charlene Guignard-Marco Fabbri, champions for three editions in a row in dance and third in Rhythm Dance on Friday, will try to climb a very short ranking led by the French Laurence Fournier Boudry-Guillaume Cizeron over the British Lilah Fear-Lewis Gibson. Good thirteenth place for Victoria Manni-Carlo Roethlisberger. First, in the afternoon, the men’s freestyle will be held with Matteo Rizzo, Daniel Grassl and Nikolaj Memola now 4th, 5th and 10th.