Two years after finishing fifth in the European Championship, the already nominated duo Hase / Seegert from Berlin went back to fifth place in the freestyle decision on Wednesday, fourth position is well within reach. The 22-year-old fell in the triple throwing salchov and tapped her forehead in astonishment when she left the ice surface.
“Annoying, but better, the mistake happens now than it did in Beijing“, said pair skating Olympic champion Aljona Savchenko on the ARD microphone. The three leading Russian pairs are unlikely to be defeated in the freestyle. Anastasija Mishina and Alexander Galljamow secured first place in the intermediate ranking ahead of Olympic fourths Yevgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov as well the defending champions Alexandra Boikowa and Dimitri Koslowski.
Duo Hocke / Kunkel disappointed
Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel remained below their expectations. The two Berliners recently struggled with an injury-related deficit in training, so they only came in 13th place for the time being. The EM newcomers Letizia Roscher and Luis Schuster from Chemnitz were still overwhelmed. The three-time German junior champions only came 19th out of 21 pairs and were eliminated early.
Fentz is eleventh
In the afternoon, veteran Paul Fentz and debutant Nikita Starostin had already reached their first stopover in the capital of Estonia. The four-time German champion from Berlin reached the freestyle finals on Friday as easily as eleventh (from 6 p.m. in the livestream on sportschau.de) as did the 19-year-old Dortmund who is 14th in the intermediate ranking.
The European title fights will continue on Thursday (11.00 a.m. / Eurosport 2 and ONE) with the women’s short program. The only German participant is the six-time national title holder Nicole Schott from Essen.