SHEFFIELD, England (AP) — Nika Egadze of Georgia will head to next month's Winter Olympics as the European figure skating champion after a dominant win by nearly 17 points on Saturday.
Skating last after rivals made mistakes, Egadze needed only to avoid glaring errors to secure gold but delivered a personal-best free skate, landing four high-scoring quadruple jumps and scoring 181.72 points for a total of 273.
Egadze dived onto the ice and slid on his chest to cheers from the crowd as he left after the skate.
“When I came to the ice it was a little bit shaky,” Egadze said. “I just remembered the words of my coaches, I just need to enjoy the moment.”
It was the second gold medal of the championships for Georgia after Egadze's friends Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava won the pairs on Thursday.
Matteo Rizzo took the silver for Italy on 256.37, his fourth career medal at the European championships.
Georgii Reshtenko of the Czech Republic had never placed higher than ninth at a major championships but smashed his personal best with 238.27 for a surprise bronze, beating defending champion Lukas Britschgi of Switzerland into fourth.
Estonian brothers Aleksandr and Mihhail Selevko were second and third behind Egadze following Thursday's short program but both fell in the free skate and dropped to fifth and sixth overall as they failed to match fellow Estonian Niina Petrokina's win in the women's competition.
The championships conclude with the free dance in the ice dance later Saturday.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics
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