Bratislava gave a standing ovation to the first gold medallist at the European Championships currently being held in the Slovak capital. Javier Fernandez of Spain skated to his fourth consecutive European title on Thursday. Alexei Bychenko of Israel claimed a historic first medal for his country at the European Championships, taking silver. Russia's Maxim Kovtun settled for the bronze.
Performing to "Guys and Dolls", Fernandez reeled off a quadruple toeloop (touched down with his hand), a quadruple Salchow-triple toeloop, triple Axel-double toeloop, quadruple Salchow and three more triples, but he fell on his second triple Axel. The World Champion earned a level-four for his spins and footwork and scored 200.23 points. Overall he accumulated 307.77 points and became the first European skater (and second skater in history) to crack the 300 points barrier.
Our colleague Zuzana Botikova spoke to the 2016 European champion in Bratislava right after the race:
Javier Fernandez
Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
2016 European figure skating champion Javier Fernandez speaking to RSI's Zuzana Botikova.
