Ice, European figure: Guignard-Fabbri d’oro, Italy conquers the medal collection

Espoo, a Finnish town, rightfully enters the geography of Italian sport. At the Meetro Arena in the town, a stone’s throw from Helsinki, the Italian flag waves: the blue team, with two golds and two silvers, conquers the medal table of the European Figure Championship, an event whose first edition dates back to 1891. It had never happened before. The second triumph after that of Sara Conti-Niccolò Macii in the pairs of artistic, the most anticipated, bears the signature of Charlene Guignard-Marco Fabbri, champions in dance as in the past Barbara Fusar Poli-Maurizio Margaglio in Bratislava 2001 and Anna Cappellini-Luca The night in Budapest 2014. For Charlene and Marco, who from Fusar Poli are trained on the IceLab rink at the Assago Forum, it is the third continental time on the podium after the bronzes in Minsk 2019 and Tallinn 2022. In the wake of the infinite school and Italian tradition in the specialty.

The race

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The bearers of the Fiamme Azzurre – she was 33 years old born in France, he was 34 from Milan, partners also in real life after they met in 2010 thanks to “Ice Partner Search”, an international website that brings together skaters from different countries, they arrive where they expected from weather. And, last season also fourth at the World Cup and fifth at the Olympics, it’s a consecration. Guignard-Fabbri, already first in Friday’s Rhythm Dance with less than a point and a half margin over the British Lilah Fear-Lewis Gibson, a couple in constant ascent, in the free skate to dark-tinged music, put on a real show. With a great interpretation and a lot of intensity. With no errors whatsoever, they deserve a total of 210.44 points. Fear-Gibson are silver with 207.89. And the highly acclaimed Finns Juulia Turkkila-Matthias Versluis – speaking of historical courses and recourses coached by Margaglio – bronze with 198.21. “It has been a long journey that has brought us here – says Marco, warmly, embracing Charlene in tears – and it is a dream come true”. For them, able to impose themselves in two stages of the Grand Prix and third in the final in Turin this season, the definitive leap in quality was also achieved thanks to some withdrawals at the end of the last Olympic cycle and the forced absence from the international scene of the Russian specialists. But the merit, in absolute terms, is solely theirs and their great will.

What Italy

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In this context, the second Italian couple also performs very well: Victoria Manni-Carlo Roethlisberger (164.21 points), now coached by Lanotte, after four participations flying the Swiss flag (his country of origin) with a 20th place as best result, they finish eleventh. Placement which, combined with the result of Guignard-Fabbri, guarantees Italy the participation of three tandems in Budapest 2024. As well as among the women, the blues will be two: thanks to Lara Gutmann who, after thirteenth place in the short, is eighth in the free and in the final classification in the race won by the Georgian Anastasiia Gubanova over the Belgian Loena Hendrickx and the Swiss Kimmy Repond. Yes: Espoo is now with full rights in the geography of Italian sport. And the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games are starting to get a little closer.