Figure skating-Georgia's Metelkina, Berulava win European pairs gold
Figure Skating - ISU Figure Skating European Championships - Sheffield Arena, Sheffield, Britain - January 15, 2026 Georgia's Nika Egadze before performing in the men's short program Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers
SHEFFIELD, England, Jan 15 : Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava claimed their first European Figure Skating title on Thursday, delivering a commanding performance ahead of what is expected to be one of the most hotly contested events at the Olympics.
The two-time world junior champions rose to the occasion as Germany's reigning champions Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin faltered, sealing the pairs victory with a score of 139.80 points for the programme and 215.76 overall.
Fabienne Hase's two costly falls opened the door for the Georgian pair, who skated last, to secure the top spot on the podium.
"We are just crazy happy to have won the European Championships," Berulava said. "Already, we've had a silver, we've had a bronze, and now we finally got the gold medal. So we are just so thrilled."
The Germans were second with 203.87 points. Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary won bronze with a score of 202.56.
Fabienne Hase fell on the throw triple loop, and then again awkwardly on a lift, the final element of their programme.
"The fall on the throw took out a little bit the flow of the programme," she said. "And then I think at the end, a little bit the energy was not there anymore, I think that's what led to the mistake in the lift.
"It will not happen again, I'm pretty sure about that."
The event at Utilita Arena is the final international competition for Europe's Olympic-bound skaters ahead of the Milano Cortina Games, where half a dozen pairs teams could fight it out for gold.
"That will be very interesting," Berulava said. "Right now in pair skating, there is not a clear leader. There is the top six teams, they are all ready to get the gold, silver or bronze. And each of us says, each athlete, we have the same goal, we want to win the Olympic Games."
Earlier on Thursday, Georgia's Nika Egadze landed two clean quadruple jumps to soar to the top of the men's singles leaderboard with a dazzling short programme.
The 23-year-old opened with a quad Salchow-triple toe loop and then reeled off a quad toe loop. His only error was reaching to grab his skate on a spin and missing, but he laid down a programme that was otherwise strong enough for 91.28 points heading into Saturday's free skate.
"I'm so happy for this. After today's short program practice, I was waiting for everything because it was so bad practice," Egadze said.
"Oh, spins," he added. "I was practising spins so much after Skate Canada (where he finished fifth in October). I had two months of practices. I was really practising it good. But today, when I was taking my leg, I didn't catch my leg."
Egadze's coaching team includes Eteri Tutberidze, who coached Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian skater at the centre of a doping scandal during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Estonia's Aleksandr Selevko scored 88.71 points to sit second, while his younger brother Mihhail was third with 88.28.
Matteo Rizzo was fourth in a great start to his campaign for a place on Italy's Olympic team.
Rizzo, who scored 88.00 points, is in a battle with Nikolaj Memola for Italy's second spot on the team, with Daniel Grassl, who is in fifth place with 84.82, already locking up the first.
"I hope that I let everybody enjoy it as much as I did, because I was really pressured today, and I hope I delivered the emotion that I had inside to the crowd," Rizzo said.
"You have no idea how much I practised it. I practise it a lot; we had to do a lot of work at home because the goal was to skate clean."
Memola, who has been hampered by injuries, was 10th in Thursday's short programme with 77.77 points.
It was a disastrous day for Kevin Aymoz of France. This season's Skate America champion crashed hard on two jumps and then stumbled awkwardly on a step sequence, leaving him in 27th place.
