Turkkila and Versluis start the hunt for a medal – will history repeat itself?

Thirty years ago, the ice dancers Susanna Rahkamo and Petri Kokko won their first major competition medal in the home EC in Helsinki. Two years later they became European champions.

Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis enter the ice dance competition as the fourth ranked pair. But as the competition consists of two parts, a rhythm dance and a free dance, one should be aware that it is the free dance that is the pride of the Finns.

This year’s rhythm dance is to Latin American rhythms and so far this winter five other couples have achieved higher scores in it. So even if Turkkila and Versluis were to be a few points behind the top three before the free dance, the path to a medal could be open. The couple’s free dance to music by Schubert is a work of art.

Veterans Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri from Italy are making their eleventh EC in Espoo and are favorites for gold. They have two bronze medals from the past, but with Olympic champions and multiple European and world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron standing over this competition season, the pair have an all-time chance to seize the gold.

The Italians, together with the British Lilah Fear-Lewis Gibson, are in a class of their own in the season’s best statistics. The field is very even after the two pairs at the top and apart from Turkkila and Versluis, the pairs from France, Lithuania and the Czech Republic have every opportunity to take their first major competition medal on Saturday.

Will Valtter Virtanen’s ninth EC be his best?

Valtter Virtanen, with his 35 years, is the European competition’s nestor. Despite the fact that he is starting to be “old” as an elite skater, this winter he had his best competitive season so far and for the first time got over 200 points in a statistically capable competition. It happened in the Grand Prix competition that took place in the same hall in November.

Virtanen is in 18th place after a successful short program on Wednesday and as his best European Championship ranking so far is the 18th place he took in 2015, there is hope that with a successful free program he will be able to make his ninth European Championship his top. Virtanen’s jumping repertoire is not enough to compete with the best.

Before the free skate, France’s Adam Siao Him Fa is on top after a flawless short program which on the jumping side contained two successful quadruple jumps and a successful triple axel, but also a very impressive step sequence for which a total of four judges gave full five points, which is quite unusual.

Other medal-hungry skaters in the men’s final are former medalists Matteo Rizzi and Daniel Grassl from Italy, Deniss Vasiljevs from Latvia and the Frenchman Kevin Aymoz, who is looking for his first major competition medal.

A skater to keep an eye on is also the Swedish promise Andreas Nordebäck, 18, who is ninth after the short program and gained many new fans this winter.