Adam Siao Him Fa captures European figure skating title from Matteo Rizzo in Espoo

Adam Siao Him Fa was crowned European figure skating champion after a stunning display in the men’s event in Espoo.

With reigning European and Olympic champion Mark Kondratiuk not able to compete due to the ongoing ban on Russian skaters, a new champion was guaranteed before the start of the meet in Finland.

And after the short programme on Thursday, France’s Siao Him Fa was in pole position after a strong performance in the short programme.

The Frenchman scored an impressive 96.53 points on Thursday to lead Matteo Rizzo by just over eight points, with Latvia’s Deniss Vasiljevs holding third spot.

And despite some nerves, a free skate score of 171.24 was more than enough to see him become the first Frenchman to win this event since Florent Amodio in 2011.

His score of 267.77 was enough to hold off Rizzo, who maintained second place and finished with a total points score of 259.92.

A disappointing second skate saw Vasiljevs miss out on the podium and slip down to fifth, with Lukas Britschgi of Switzerland moving up to take bronze.

Earlier in the day, Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson put themselves in the medal hunt with a strong opening skate in the Ice Dance competition.

Fear and Gibson sit in second place after the rhythm dance, with the free dance still to come on Saturday.

The British pairing scored 84.12 points for the opening routine, with Italian pairing Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri ahead with a score of 85.53.

Those two pairings hold a sizable lead over the rest of the field, with the pairing in third – home favourites Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis – sitting on a total of 77.56 points.

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