Figure skating, Europeans figure: Grassl, silver feat. In 131 years, only Fassi is better for Italy

Italy, after Carlo Fassi’s gold medals in Dortmund 1953 and in Bolzano 1954, after the silverware of the same athlete in Vienna 1952 and that of the original Frenchman Samuel Contesti in Helsinki 2009 and after Matteo Rizzo’s bronze in Minsk 2019, returns to the men’s podium of the European Figure Championships. The merit of this “sixth time” goes to Daniel Grassl, a 19-year-old from Merano who is a splendid second at the Tondiraba Ice Hall in Tallinn.

The race

–

Considering that the event has its origins in the distant 1891, even if there are some absences, the result is of enormous importance. Especially three weeks before the start of the Beijing Olympics. Daniel, on whose talent he has been betting for some time, fifth after Wednesday’s short, with a program almost free from smudges, skated to the notes of the Interstellar and Armageddon soundtracks, accomplishes a feat. His four minutes on the ice, as well as much more, are embellished with three quadruple jumps and seven triple jumps. Lorenzo Magri’s student policeman on the Egna track thus overtakes the Georgian Morisi Kvitelashvili, who was fourth after the first part of the race and the Russians Evgeni Semenenko and Andrei Mozalev, third and second. Grassl, with a free kick of 182.73 points and a total of 274.48, also touches both Italian records in Estonia. To resist only the other Russian Mark Kondratiuk, 18 year old trained in Moscow by Svetlana Sokolovskaia and Lilia Biktagirova: he was second and with a 187.50 (European record removed from compatriot Aliev) goes up to 286.56 (continental record removed from French Aymoz) . The bronze thus goes to the neck of Latvian Deniss Vasiljevs, “son” of the great Stephane Lambiel, who gives his country the first medal in the history of the event.

Perspectives

–

The tricolor figure, in hours made so complicated by the pandemic for Covid, is celebrating. For the definitive consecration of a prodigy. For that medal that with three third places (including Grassl), was missing in the last edition of Graz 2020, interrupting a streak of 14 consecutive years. And, in a further perspective, for the nice ninth place of Gabriele Frangipani (238.95) and the fifteenth of the newcomer Nikolaj Memola (206.53). Italy, in Helsinki 2023, will again be able to count on three representatives.