Lukas Britschgi, who competed as defending champion, finished fourth in Sheffield and missed out on a third European Championship medal by 1.37 points. Gold goes to the Georgian Nika Egadze.
17.01.2026, 18:24
17.01.2026, 18:28
SDA
A year ago, Britschgi improved from 8th to 1st place in the free skate. After finishing 6th in the short program, he could therefore still expect a lot. Although the 27-year-old from Schaffhausen moved up two positions, this was more due to the weakening competition. Britschgi also fell short of his potential. It was therefore more than annoying for him that he did not make it onto the European Championship podium for the third time after winning gold in 2025 and bronze in 2023.
Even the start of the freestyle, which had a strong oriental influence, did not go as planned: Britschgi only did a triple instead of a quadruple toelop, which is why the quadruple-triple combination did not materialize. When he tried to perform the second toelopp with four rotations, he fell because the jump was under-rotated. On the second triple Axel, he touched the ice with his hand after landing. And the last combination was only a double-two. This was all the more unfortunate as he skated very expressively, which is why he received the second-highest score in the program components.
The disappointment after the performance was written all over Britschgi's face. With a freestyle total of 154.78 points, he fell 15.58 points short of his personal best for the season. His best score achieved at last year's European Championships was 184.19 points. Another European Championship medal would have been practically on a platter.
Of the final group, only two of the six skaters were convincing: the Georgian winner Nika Egadze and the Italian Matteo Rizzo, who stood on the European Championship podium for the third time. For Egadze, who landed three quadruple jumps, it was his first medal at the European Championships - as it was for third-placed Czech Georgii Reshtenko. The latter improved from 8th to 3rd place in the freestyle; his previous best European Championship ranking had been 9th place.
