Italy’s Guignard and Fabbri win European ice dance title for the 3rd straight year

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Italian ice dancers Charlène Guignard and Marco Fabbri won their event for the third year in a row Saturday at the European figure skating championships.

Skating in their 13th European championships together, Guignard and Fabbri had the lead from Friday’s rhythm dance and delivered an assured free dance with a robot theme to score a total 212.12 points and stay clear of a close contest for the other medals.

The next target for the Italians is the world championships in Boston in March as they aim to improve on their best result of a silver medal in 2023.

“Some time off and then back again at work,” Fabbri said.

Barely a point separated second from fourth place. France’s Evgeniia Lopareva and Geoffrey Brissaud won their first European medal with silver on 206.76 to beat Britain’s Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who danced to a Beyoncé medley, on 206.06. Finland’s Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis missed the podium by just .33.

The European figure skating championships, which began Wednesday, have been overshadowed by the deaths of skaters, coaches and their families in a mid-air collision between a passenger jet and military helicopter near Washington, D.C.

The championships end with the men’s free skate later Saturday.

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