Blackouts in the free skate: Figure skater Britschgi awards a European Championship medal

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The first major event of the season ends with a bitter disappointment for Lukas Britschgi. A year ago he sensationally improved from 5th to 3rd place in the free skate. This time the silver medal seemed ready for the Swiss, especially as the Schaffhausen resident shone with the most consistent performance so far. But blackouts on almost all jumps caused him to fall far behind: only 10th place in the free skate; Dropped from 2nd to 5th place in the overall rankings.

Britschgi only showed a quadruple jump in his freestyle to African rhythms. And he couldn’t stand this toe loop. The triple Axel resulted in the second fall in the third element. The problems came out of nowhere: Britschgi never fell during training in Lithuania.

After the failed start there was a lack of self-confidence. Britschgi reduced the speed and refrained from a jump combination. At the end of his freestyle you could see his disappointment. It was clear to him that this performance would not be enough for a medal. The Estonian Alexander Selekov (silver) and the Italian Matteo Rizzo (bronze) took the medals from under his nose.

According to the script it only worked at the top. Even before the title fights, Britschgi had said that anything but gold was possible because “the Frenchman Adam Siao Him Fa is simply a class better.” The 22-year-old defending champion actually won again. The leader remained confident in the gold medal spot after the short program with an imperfect but extremely difficult free skate. Siao Him Fa was so superior that he could even perform a backflip – an illegal element that earned him two points deductions, but above all thrilled the audience.

The next highlight for Britschgi is the World Championships in the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund in March. A year ago, Britschgi finished 8th at the World Championships, perhaps he can recuperate in Germany for the free skate in Kaunas. (SDA)

Source : Blick