Figure skating-Georgia's Metelkina, Berulava win European pairs gold

SHEFFIELD, England, Jan 15 : Two-time world junior champions Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava of Georgia captured their first European Figure Skating title on Thursday, rising to the occasion as Germany's reigning champions Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin faltered.

Metelkina and Berulava delivered a composed, confident free skate to seal the pairs victory with a score of 139.80 for the programme and 215.76 overall.

Hase's two costly falls opened the door for the Georgian pair, who skated last, to secure the top spot on the podium.

The Germans, who are expected to challenge for a medal at the Milano Cortina Olympics, were second with 203.87 points.

Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary won bronze with a score of 202.56.

Earlier on Thursday, Georgia's Nika Egadze landed two clean quadruple jumps to soar to the top of the men's singles leaderboard with a dazzling short programme.

The 23-year-old opened with a quad Salchow-triple toe loop and then reeled off a quad toe loop. His only 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.

"I'm so happy for this. After today's short program practice, I was waiting for everything because it was so bad practice," Egadze said.

"Oh, spins," he added. "I was practising spins so much after Skate Canada (where he finished fifth in October). I had two months of practices. I was really practising it good. But today, when I was taking my leg, I didn't catch my leg."

Egadze's coaching team includes Eteri Tutberidze, who coached Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian skater at the centre of a doping scandal during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Estonia's