Georgia’s Nika Egadze produced a stylish free programme to win the gold medal at the European figure skating championships on Saturday.
With the Olympics at Milan-Cortina just three weeks away, Egadze executed four quads in an almost flawless performance as last man on the ice.
Knowing that he had won even before the runaway total score of 273 was announced, he slid along the ice on his front in celebration to an appreciative Sheffield crowd.
“It was a really hard week for me mentally because the first days were like really shaky, the practices didn’t go well,” the 23-year-old said.
After securing the first European gold of his career, Egadze was full of praise for his choreographer Benoit Richaud.
He said that the Frenchman helps him to be “more calm, more relaxed, how to not think about the medal, how to just think about my skating, to make people happy with my skating -- and I was just trying to do this.”
Italy’s Matteo Rizzo took silver on 256.37, while Czech skater Georgii Reshtenko finished third on 238.27.
“I really look forward to the Olympic Games and you know they’re in Milan... so it’s gonna be special,” Rizzo said after picking up his fourth European medal in perfect time ahead of his home Games.
Egadze’s was a second title for Georgia in Sheffield after Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava won pairs gold on Thursday.
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