The German figure skaters Minerva-Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin have fulfilled their dream of winning gold at the World Championships. Five weeks after winning pair skating bronze at the Winter Olympics in Milan, the Berliners refined their strong short program with a convincing free skate and secured the world title for the first time. After bronze (2024) and silver (2025), the top duo of the German Ice Skating Union (DEU) now has a complete set of World Cup medals.
“We wanted to have fun here. But of course it’s very nice that we won,” said Hase, who said with regard to the lead after the short program: “We told ourselves not to think about it too much.”
Hase/Volodin prevailed on Thursday evening at the World Championships in Prague with a personal best of 228.33 points ahead of Olympic silver medalists Anastassia Metelkina/Luka Berulawa from Georgia (218.41). Lia Pereira/Trennt Michaud from Canada secured third place in the atmospheric O2 Arena (216.09). The Japanese Olympic champions and world champions Miura Riku/Kihara Ryichi had canceled their start in advance. The second German duo Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel came in seventh (194.11).
World-class short program as the foundation for World Cup gold
Hase/Volodin laid the foundation for success with a world-class short program (79.78) on Wednesday. They went into the free skate, the last competition of the season, with a wafer-thin lead. After a clean triple combination, Hase wobbled during the triple Salchow but stayed on his feet. As a result, the Berliners ran expressively and without any further mistakes – the goal was achieved.
The World Championships were the last competition of the long Olympic season for figure skaters. There is a question mark behind the future of Hase/Volodin together. They had avoided a clear commitment after third place in Milan.
Hocke/Kunkel showed their lively and atmospheric freestyle, which was, as usual, well received by the audience. 128.76 points were the free skate season’s best for Hocke/Kunkel. With a total of 194.11 points, they exactly repeated the result of the Winter Games in Milan. In February they came tenth.
“We’re overjoyed. I don’t know what to say at the moment. I’m a bit speechless,” said Hocke and raved about the “incredible” atmosphere: “And we’re really happy that we were able to give our coaches such a nice end to the season.” For Kunkel, the season finale was “simply fantastic. Such feedback from the arena and the audience – that’s exactly why we’re doing it.”
