Figure skating-Georgia's Egadze leads after European men's short programme

SHEFFIELD, England, Jan 15 : Georgia's Nika Egadze soared to the top of the leaderboard at the European Figure Skating Championships on Thursday, landing two clean quadruple jumps in a dazzling short programme that left the crowd buzzing.

The 23-year-old's one error was reaching to grab his skate on a spin and missing but he laid down a programme that was otherwise strong enough for 91.28 points heading into Saturday's free skate.

Estonia's Aleksandr Selevko scored 88.71 points to sit second, while his younger brother Mihhail was third with 88.28 in the final international competition for Europe's Olympic-bound skaters ahead of the Milano Cortina Games.

Matteo Rizzo was fourth in a great start to his campaign for a place on Italy's Olympic team.

Rizzo, who scored 88.00 points, is in a battle with Nikolaj Memola for Italy's second spot on the team, with Daniel Grassl, who is in fifth place with 84.82, already locking up the first.

Memola, who has been hampered by injuries, was 10th in Thursday's short programme with 77.77 points.

It was a disastrous day for Kevin Aymoz of France. This season's Skate America champion crashed hard on two jumps and then stumbled awkwardly on a step sequence, leaving him in 27th place.

The pairs free programme was scheduled for later on Thursday.