When the Russian Mark Kondratjuk won the European Championship, the German figure skating men missed the top 10. In the free program on Friday (January 14, 2022) in Tallinn, European Championship debutant Nikita Starostin came in a good 13th place, while German champion Paul Fentz was a disappointing 16th.
Junior World Champion still intercepted
The new European champion is the Russian champion Mark Kondratjuk, who won his first EM with a total of 286.56 points against the Italian Daniel Grassl (274.48 points) and the Latvian Dennis Wasiljews (272.08 points).
After the short program in the capital of Estonia, the Russian Junior World Champion Andrei Mosalew was in the lead ahead of Kondratjuk and the third Russian, Jewgeny Semenenko. But Mozalev and Semenenko showed nerves in the freestyle and only finished fourth and fifth.
Dortmund Starostin on debut 13.
Best Figure Skater of the German Skating Union (ENG) Dortmund’s Nikita Starostin came in 13th. At his first European championship, the third-placed player in the German championship achieved a new personal best with a total of 214.40 points. The 19-year-old native of Russia completely dispensed with quadruple jumps in his freestyle program and stayed with the music “stay” by Oliver Tompsett with his two triple axel but faultless.
After 14th place in the short program, he improved by one place. Although Starostin was the best of the German starters, the figure skater, who trains in Dortmund and Antwerp, cannot qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing because he does not yet have a German passport.
Fentz slips
Paul Fentz, on the other hand, missed a clear exclamation mark for his targeted Olympic qualification. The German master and EM– Eighth of 2020 was only 16th in Tallinn after eleventh place in the short program. The Berliner started his program strongly: after falling in the short program with the quadruple toeloop, he put a clean quadruple-double toeloop combination on ice in the freestyle.
But this strong start didn’t help the 29-year-old through the freestyle he did “hurricanes” of the rock band Scorpions: He fell during the following elements such as the triple toeloop or the triple lutz, he only performed a triple axel twice.
Fentz to the Olympics?
Since Fentz was not able to qualify directly for the Olympics at the Nebelhorn Trophy in September and also missed an Olympic recommendation at the European Championships, the Berliner must now be at the mercy of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) to hope. On Tuesday (01/18/2022) the association will make the figure skating nomination.
ENG loses one EM-Starting place
However, the qualification criteria for the European Championship 2023 are without mercy. Because the placements for Starostin as 13th and Fentz as 16th result in a total of 29, the EM only one German man will start in the coming year. To secure the second starting place, both should have reached a maximum of 28.