Germany’s Hase and Volodin claim first European Pairs’ title
2025 European Figure Skating Championships Pairs’ Podium (From L-R): Sara Conti/Niccolo Macii (ITA), Minerva Fabienne Hase/Nikita Volodin (GER) and Anastasiia Metelkina/Luka Berulava (GEO).
2025 European Figure Skating Championships: Pairs
Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin claimed their first European title in Tallinn, Estonia, after placing fifth at this event last year. Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy maintained second throughout the event to secure the silver, while Georgia’s Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava soared from ninth place to capture the bronze.
Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin
Hase and Volodin delivered a flawless performance in their soulful short program to “You Were Mine” which featured triple Salchows, a throw triple loop, and level-four lift and spin. While the 2024 World bronze medalists received a one-point deduction for a time violation, they still placed first with 71.59 points with over a three-point margin going into the free skate.
“Today was a bit of a ‘job done’ program,” said Hase. “I was very nervous today, but my coach Dmitri Savin helped me a lot and calmed me down. He had to work a lot with my nerves. We’re pleased with how it went, but it was more of a performance where we just got through it.”
“I’m happy with the first-place placement, but in general, we need improvement in our elements,” Volodin pointed out. “Tomorrow, the most important thing is that we skate clean. We want to skate clean, and then the result and the points will come.”
The two-time Grand Prix Final champions delivered a powerful and dramatic free skate to The Four Seasons. The level-three triple twist was huge, garnering high grades of execution (GOE), however, Hase popped the last jump in a triple toe-double Axel-double Axel sequence. They quickly recovered to land triple Salchows, a throw triple loop and throw triple Salchow. Two lifts and the pair spin received a level four, and they finished first in the free skate and overall (140.89/212.48) for the gold.
“It feels incredible to be European champions,” said Hase. “The moment we realized it was when the scores came up because we saw that Sara and Niccolo also celebrated after their skate. So we knew that they had had a good skate. We weren’t sure until the last moment that it had been enough. We knew there was still a chance even after this mistake, but we weren’t sure until the very end. This victory shows that all of our hard work paid off—every sweat drop, every training session was worth it, and it’s an incredible feeling!”
“Yesterday I was very, very nervous, but today I was just focused on my performance and wasn’t so nervous,” added Volodin.
Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii
Conti and Macii of Italy placed second (68.52) with their quality short program to music from Carmen Suite. Conti turned out the landing of a throw triple loop, but the rest of the program was solid. They delivered clean triple Salchows and earned a level four on the steps and spin.
“We feel good,” said Conti. “There were some mistakes. We thought it was just a throw, but when we saw the protocol, we realized we missed some levels. We don’t understand right now why we missed a level in the lift.”
“Even with some mistakes, we’re in second place and got good scores,” Macii added. “This shows the overall work and the quality we’ve put in.”
The 2023 World bronze medalists delivered a near-perfect and emotional free skate to “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” The only mistake came near the beginning when Macii stepped out of the final jump in a triple toe-double Axel-double Axel sequence. The triple Salchows were clean and the landings on the throw triple loop and throw triple Salchow were solid. The team also picked up a level four for all three lifts and the pair spin, and they finished second in the free skate and overall (138.37/206.89).
“This silver means a lot,” said Macii. “Last year’s Europeans were the biggest disappointment of our career, and we wanted to redeem ourselves. The podium was the goal. We knew the other teams were very strong. We are very happy we found our connection again. Last year wasn’t the same because our relationship has changed, but today it felt like two years ago again. We really felt the connection.”
Conti agreed with her partner: “Same for me. It wasn’t easy after last year, but it’s nice to have that connection with my partner again.”
“We’ve realized that the less we focus on the medals, the more we end up getting them,” Macii summed up. “Our goal is to just go for it, without thinking too much about the medals.”
Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava
The 2024 World Junior Champions found themselves in a disappointing ninth place (57.03) after the short program. Metelkina fell on the side-by-side triple Salchows and the team received no value for their back-outside death spiral in their routine to “Why?” by Bronski Beat.
However, the team bounced back with a nearly solid and expressive free skate to “A Necessary End” by Saltillo. Metelkina stepped out the triple toes, but they managed the triple Salchow-double Axel-double Axel sequence. Both the throw triple flip and throw triple loop landings were solid, receiving positive GOEs. Two lifts were graded a level four, as was the death spiral and pair spin, and they scored 134.85 points for third place in this segment. With a total score of 191.88, they finished third overall.
“It was horrible news, and it really put things in perspective for me,” said Berulava. “Yesterday, I thought my short program was a catastrophe, but now I’ve realized that a bad short program isn’t a real catastrophe. It was a learning experience for me. Also, I want to apologize for not showing up for the interviews yesterday. I still have to learn to cope with my emotions. When something doesn’t go to plan, I often think it’s the end of the world.”
“I also felt very devastated about my skate yesterday,” admitted Metelkina. “But today was much better. We hope to do something similar to Adam last year at Worlds, to make a huge jump and rise as high as possible. Today went much better for us.”
On criticism regarding their participation in Junior Worlds, Berulava said: “Well, the answer is actually short. We want to compete. We want to use the opportunity to compete. The ISU rules allow us to compete, so we want to grab the chance to gain experience and earn world standing points. That’s why we’re doing it. The rules allow it.”
They are also planning to compete at the Challenge Cup in Tilburg, aiming to compete frequently in order to gain more world standing points.
Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko
Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary delivered an entertaining and strong short to “Kiss” and “Sex Bomb” by Tom Jones. The triple twist and triple toes were solid, earning positive GOEs. The only error came when Pavlova put a hand down on the throw triple flip. The spin and lift were both graded a level four, and they placed third with 65.88 points.
“I feel good,” said Pavlova. “We had a bit of a longer break from competition, which I personally didn’t like, but it was necessary because Alexei has a back injury that actually put the second half of the season a little bit at risk. He’s seeing a doctor, and while he’s still not completely healed, he can compete. We’re working on getting it fully healed.”
The 2023 Skate Canada silver medalists were off to a good start in the free skate, but the triple twist only earned a level two and Pavlova took a fall on the throw triple flip. They lost a few levels on several elements, placing fourth (125.56) in this segment. With a total score of 191.44, they placed fourth overall, just missing the podium by 0.45 points.
Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby
In their fourth appearance at this event, Great Britain’s Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby placed fifth overall (183.76), four spots up from last year’s placement. The 2024 CS PGE Warsaw Cup silver medalists placed fourth (64.83) in the short program and sixth in the free skate with a new personal best (118.93).
The team feels the season has been going good so far and they came into the event without feeling any extra pressure or expectations.
“If someone would have told me that I would be top five at Europeans, I would have probably said, ‘yeah, that’s a good one,'” said Vaipan-Law. “Our goal was to make top 10.”
“Well, actually, top eight, because we have been 10th, ninth before, and we wanted to climb up a little bit,” Digby chimed in.
Earlier this morning, Vaipan-Law took a fall on a lift and the paramedics were called in to assess.
“Yeah, it was quite a scare,” she said. “I will definitely not watch the video of this fall until I retire. But it turned out okay, and for me it was very important to go back on the ice, to not let it get into my head. So, after I was taken care of, I continued the practice, and that was important for me.”
Digby shared they would be taking time off to focus on practice and reflect on this competition heading into Worlds.
Rebecca Ghilardi and Filippo Ambrosini of Italy placed sixth (180.86), followed by Ioulia Chtchetinina and Michal Wozniak of Poland (177.86) and Germany’s Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel (176.55).
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