Crystal Skate

Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte are very, very close to a second European title, but their victory is very far from assured with Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron breathing down their backs. And what about Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev - will they keep their third place, rise higher or be overrun by another couple? Isabella Tobias/Ilia Tkachenko  are now competing for Israel. They skate to Polovetsian Dances . Love the costumes, but based on what I've seen from other skaters before, I think they might be a bit too ballroom for the theme. Correct me if I'm wrong. Technically, he loses the first position of the twizzles, but the straight-line lift with her upside down and him on one leg is astonishing. Their score: 87.21 . Overall: 151.67 . Italy's Guignard/Fabbri have the most emotional performance Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri  will sure leave a mark in Bratislava. I love the way they express all the pain of Schindler's List  throughout the rou

Aliona Savchenko fought with all she had to be able to come back with a new partner and challenge her old rivals, Tatiana Volosozhar & Maxim Trankov. She and Bruno might be second after the short, but with only four points behind, they are going to give it their best to beat the odds. Kudos to Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres  for attempting a thrown quad Salchow at 11 in the morning. She steps out of it, but it is fully rotated. The other mistake is her double-footing out of the side-by-side Triple Toeloops, which were out of sync. The music is Romeo and Juliet , and I'm glad to see they are finally wearing costumes that fit the music rather than just being pretty. Love the exit out of the pair spin with him lifting her. Their score: 123.45 . Overall: 185.55 . Russia's best pair ever is back with a bang in Bratislava Photo:  AP Photo/Petr David Josek Valentina Marchei/Ondrej Hotarek  have sync issues both in the side-by-side triple Lutzes and the side-by-side spins. The

European ice dance has never been this good. There are three couples who called themselves European champions in the last three seasons competing here. This is a battle between the sophistication of the French, the charisma of the Italians and the technical prowess of the Russians. Victoria Sinitsina/Nikita Katsalapov  are the first Russians to impress. I really love their Swan Lake  waltz. It's good to hear the happier parts of the ballet too, not just the tragedy. The diagonal step sequence is probably my favourite part of the programme. Twizzles are slightly out of sync. Their score: 68.33 . Alexandra Stepanova/Ivan Bukin  take us to another era, one that's glitzier and a lot more fun, but less intense. The Ravensburg waltz is sharper and the twizzles are, as always, phenomenal. Still, I enjoyed their countrymen's waltz more. Maybe it's because this one seems to lack a background story. They get 66.65  points. Charlene Guignard/Marco Fabbri  might not be Italy&

The men's short programme is one of the most exciting events of the European Championships even when the winner is pretty much already decided. It's all about the jumps, the speed, the extraordinary stamina the boys possess. This is my first time seeing Matteo Rizzo , as it is for most, I'm sure. This is his first European appearance and he doesn't do a bad job at all. All the jumps are beautifully landed and the presentation, although not necessarily passionate, is alright. I appreciate the way the transitions fit the rhythm of the music. His score: 74.91 . P.S.: That right there is an eruption of happiness. I expected a funny character from Mikhail Kolyada  today, but I didn't really get that. He tries to be funny, but it just looks like he's going through the motions instead of being genuine. It's probably because of the mistakes: fall on the quad Toeloop and a hand down + step out of the triple Axel. He gets 77.58  points. This is the last compet

I have heard talks about the Ondrej Nepela Trophy for years. It's one of those ghostly competitions not part of the Grand Prix Series, but that still makes waves through the amount of great skaters attending it. In all honesty, I've never watched it. I've never even researched it. My only interactions with it have been glancing over some skater or another's season overview and seeing that they've won it. So when I noticed the venue for the 2016 Europeans was the Ondrej Nepela Arena I had an "Oh, goodie" moment as in "Oh, goodie, I finally have the opportunity to find out more about it." For others like me, who don't really know who Ondrej Nepela was, here's what you need to know. He is basically the best skater Slovakia and the Czech Republic have ever had (no wonder they love him so much). Back in the day when Czechoslovakia was on the European map (1960s - 1970s), he won an Olympic gold medal, three World titles and the Europeans five