For the Berlin pair skaters Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel, the figure skating World Championships in Saitama, Japan, is the next location determination after winning the bronze at the European Championships.
“They made a mark at the European Championship”said Claudia Pfeifer, the sports director of the German Skating Union, before the start of the World Cup on Wednesday (3:00 a.m. / CET) in the short program.
No medal as a goal
Winning a medal at the world title fights “not the target” in view of the great competition from starters from the host country, the USA, Canada or Italy. For Hocke/Kunkel, who have been preparing in Fukuoka/Japan for a week, a place in the “extended world class” realistic and desirable in view of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
The couple from the Spree had won the first medal for Germany in the discipline at the European Championships since Aljona Savchenko/Bruno Massot won the Olympics and finished thirteenth at the 2021 World Cup. Alisa Efimova/Ruben Blommaert (Oberstdorf/Berlin), who came fourth at the European Championships, are the second German couple.
Some firsts at the World Cup
A top ten placement is the goal of the German association in the individual competitions. In the women’s category, two-time Olympic participant Nicole Schott from Essen finished tenth at the World Championships last year. Kristina Isaev (Mannheim) is making her debut.
Jennifer Janse van Rensburg and Benjamin Steffan (Oberstdorf), who came ninth at the European Championships, also celebrated their World Championship premiere in ice dancing. The two-time German champions missed the World Cup in Montpellier last year due to a corona disease. The German champion Nikita Starostin (Dortmund) is looking forward to his second participation in the World Cup. In 2022 he came in 22nd place.