SHEFFIELD, England (AP) — France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron won the ice dance at the European figure skating championships on Saturday after the buildup was overshadowed by a dispute between Cizeron and his former dance partner.
Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron scored 135.50 points for their free skate to music from the movie “The Whale” for a total 222.43.
That’s the highest total score in ice dance by anyone this season and underlined their status as challengers to American pair Madison Chock and Evan Bates for the gold medal at next month’s Winter Olympics.
“It was a really important step for us, the first European championships for us,” said Cizeron, who was in his first season with Fournier Beaudry. “It’s setting a really important base for us to keep getting better.”
Cizeron won the Olympic gold medal in 2022 with Gabriella Papadakis, who has published a book describing him as controlling and their partnership as unequal.
Cizeron has contested her claims and called the comments part of a “smear campaign.” Papadakis said on Friday she lost a commentary role with NBC for the Winter Olympics.
The experienced Italian pair of Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, 14 years on from their European championship debut in Sheffield, took silver with 210.34. The Italians overtook home favorites Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson of Britain, who were second after the rhythm dance but finished third overall on 209.51.
Egadze takes men’s gold
Nika Egadze of Georgia will head to the Olympics as the European men’s champion after a dominant win by nearly 17 points.
Skating last after rivals made mistakes, Egadze needed only to avoid glaring errors to secure gold but delivered a personal-best free skate, landing four high-scoring quadruple jumps and scoring 181.72 points for a total of 273.
Egadze dived onto the ice and slid on his chest to cheers from the crowd as he left after the skate.
“When I came to the ice it was a little bit shaky,” Egadze said. “I just remembered the words of my coaches, I just need to enjoy the moment.”
It was the second gold medal of the championships for Georgia after Egadze’s friends Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava won the pairs on Thursday.
Matteo Rizzo took the silver for Italy on 256.37, his fourth career medal at the European championships.
Georgii Reshtenko of the Czech Republic had never placed higher than ninth at a major championships but smashed his personal best with 238.27 for a surprise bronze, beating defending champion Lukas Britschgi of Switzerland into fourth.
Estonian brothers Aleksandr and Mihhail Selevko were second and third behind Egadze following Thursday’s short program but both fell in the free skate and dropped to fifth and sixth overall as they failed to match fellow Estonian Niina Petrokina’s win in the women’s competition.
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