Ice-skater Javier Fernández clinches fifth European Championship trophy on the trot
Sunday, January 29, 2017 @ 11:20 PM
SPANISH skater Javier Fernández has netted his fifth consecutive European Championship title – a feat only achieved by two others on ice in the last 125 years.
Fernández, who will be 26 in April and has been skating competitively for 20 years, is universally acknowledged to be the second-best in the world, after his Japanese friend Yuzuru Hanyu, who always proves a tough rival to beat.
But this has not stopped Fernández from taking the European Championship title every year since 2013 inclusive.
After beating his own record with a stunning flamenco-on-ice display on Friday and scooping up 104.25 points at the competition in Ostravar, Czech Republic, a fall yesterday (Saturday) in the freestyle event meant he lost ground, ending on 190.59 for the second day.
Having started his display with a perfect quadruple toe and a near-perfect second quad, Javier hit the ground during the third and final quadruple salchow, putting his potential victory in jeopardy.
But the excellent choreography and execution of the rest of his act, to the background music of three Elvis Presley songs, coupled with the absence of any rival of Hanyu's calibre meant he walked away with a 30-point lead over second-placed Maxim Kovtun, from Russia, who scooped up 266.80 points to Fernández's 294.84.
His next challenge will be to work hard on perfecting his leaps to keep up his glowing trajectory for the rest of the season – having won the Grand Prix in Paris and Moscow on top of yet another European Championship – particularly with the World Championships in Finland imminent.
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