Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii take full advantage in absence of Russian competitors, win Euro pairs title

• Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii won the European Championships.
• Georgia’s Anastasia Gubanova won the short program.
• She was followed in second place by Belgian favorite Loena Hendrickx.

On Thursday, Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii, who capitalized on the absence of the usually powerful Russians, won the pairs title at the European figure skating championships in Espoo, Finland.

After the free skate, Conti and Macii amassed a total of 195.13 points, building on the strong short program that put them in the lead of the competition.

Despite only placing fifth in their short program, Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini, another Italian pair, unexpectedly placed second, with 186.96 points.

Third place on 184.26 were Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel of Germany.

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“It means so much to us, we really love skating for our country,” said Macii after a performance to the soundtrack of the movie, “Cinema Paradisio”.

“We made some obvious mistakes, we don’t really know why, but the public was for us and really pushed us to do better on the elements that came after.

“I think we deserve to party tonight.”

Due to the invasion of Ukraine, Russian skaters are prohibited from participating in the competition.

In the competition last year, Russia won every podium position.

In the women’s competition, Russia also dominated the medal count in 2022, but on Thursday, it was Anastasia Gubanova of Georgia who shone.

She won the short program with 69.81 points, followed in second place by Belgian favorite Loena Hendrickx with 67.85.

Gubanova, who competed for Russia until the summer of 2021, said, “I didn’t expect this score because I didn’t skate in an ideal way.”

“It’s my second European Championships. I feel like I’ve gained experience and I’m managing to be calmer. I am trying not to think about the medal too much.”

The pivotal free event happens on Saturday.

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