European figure skating: Grassl fifth in the short

The European Championships in Tallinn begin in the name of Russia. In the men’s short that opens the Estonian review, she is a hat-trick. In a highly technical competition and in view of Friday’s free, less than a point separates Andrei Mozalev (99.76) from Mark Kondratiuk (99.06) and Evgeni Semenenko (99.04). And to think that the 18-year-old Mozalev, junior world champion in office, a pupil of Kirill Davydenko in St. Petersburg, learned that he would participate no earlier than Sunday, when Mikhail Kolyada, probably the most accredited of the group, raised the white flag, officially due to an injury suffered in training.

The race

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Italy, with the Georgian Morisi Kvitelashvili fourth (92.76), can cultivate hopes for a medal: Daniel Grassl, in fact, is fifth (91.75), 7.29 points from the virtual podium. It is a large gap, but not very wide, considering the amount of elements to be presented in the second part of the race. The South Tyrolean, who in Graz 2020 (last edition of the event disputed) missed the bronze by 1.82 points in favor of the Georgian, in the first one lacks a second quadruple (the one in combination), which vice versa present all those who precede him in the standings . The 19-year-old policeman, to be up to it, would have had to take risks that he never took in the race. Nor, on this occasion, in the six minutes of warm-up … Meanwhile, in a context inevitably conditioned by the Covid pandemic (today, among the tested in Tallin, there are six cases of positivity) and with Matteo Rizzo on the post for a skates problem, Gabriele Frangipani (Fiamme Oro) do well, 9th with 81.79 was 13th two years ago) and 18-year-old rookie Nikolaj Memola (IceLab), 12th with 73.98. Both will be skating in the second group on Friday.

The others

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Meanwhile tonight, in the short of couples, Nicole Della Monica-Matteo Guarise absent, space for Rebecca Ghilardi-Filippo Ambrosini and Sara Conti-Niccolo Macii. On Thursday the women will enter the scene, with Lara Gutmann and Marina Piredda (with another possible Russian hat-trick in sight as well as between the couples) and on Friday the dance couples, with Charlene Guignard-Marco Fabbri on the hunt for a medal ( plus Carolina Moscheni-Francesco Fioretti).