Italian favourites take ice dancing lead at figure skating European
Italy's Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri opened their bid for a third consecutive European title by leading the ice dance rhythm dance at the European figure skating championships on Friday.
To the music of Stevie Wonder and Wilson Picket the Italians scored 84.23 points to lead France's Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud, who achieved 82.75 for their presentation to Boney M's 'Rasputin'.
Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are in third position on 81.57 heading into Saturday's free dance final.
Fear and Gibson, the two-time continental silver medallists, are looking for a first British triumph since Torvill and Dean in 1994.
Former winner Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia is leading the women's singles competition going into Friday's free skate final.
The 22-year-old, who won the title in 2023 before finishing second last year, led the short programme on Wednesday.
Gubanova only holds a slender advantage of 0.05 points though from second-placed Niina Petrokina after the Estonian's impressive performance.
Switzerland's Kimmy Repond sits in third place.
The women's competition was blown wide open by the withdrawal of reigning champion Loena Hendrickx, after the Belgian ended her season early to have ankle surgery.
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