As expected, the new model pair skaters Minerva-Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin won their first title at the German figure skating championships.
The duo received a total of 218.77 points for a strong freestyle and a flawless short program the day before in the Wellblechpalast in Berlin. Last week, the Berliner and her partner, who comes from St. Petersburg, won the Grand Prix final in Beijing. “It’s the first championship title for us. We wanted to present ourselves well in front of our home crowd,” said Hase.
The couple, who have only been together for a year, are now among the favorites at the European Championships in January in Kaunas, Lithuania. The third-placed European Championships and defending champions Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (Berlin) had to cancel their start on the Spree as well as the Grand Prix final due to injury.
Kai Jagoda became German champion for the first time. The Berliner, who has been training in Oberstdorf for two years, was able to push last year’s winner Nikita Starostin (198.94) out of first place with 204.51 points. The Dortmund player was in the lead after the short program and had reached the finals at the last two World Cups and European Championships. “It was the best freestyle I’ve done so far in my life,” said Jagoda.
After two second places in the past two years, 22-year-old Kristina Isaev from Mannheim won her first championship title with 158.73 points, well ahead of Sarah Pesch (Aschaffenburg/135.68). Last year’s winner and seven-time German champion Nicole Schott had ended her career. In ice dancing, Jennifer Janse van Rensburg/Benjamin Steffan (Oberstdorf) won their undisputed third title. With 185.49 points, they relegated Charise Matthaei/Max Liebers (Chemnitz/170.76) to second place.