Petrokina leads short program in her European figure skating title defense

SHEFFIELD, England (AP) — Niina Petrokina is on track to retain her European figure skating title ahead of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics after building a solid lead in the short program Wednesday.

Petrokina missed the Grand Prix series due to Achilles tendon surgery in October but the Estonian skater looked like she'd never been away with a clean skate including a triple lutz-triple toeloop combination.

A year on from her surprise European title win on home ice, Petrokina beat her short-program score from that event with a personal-best 70.61 points.

Belgian skater Nina Pinzarrone, bronze medalist each of the last two years, is second on 64.97 and Italy's Anna Pezzetta is third on 64.85.

Loena Hendrickx of Belgium, the 2024 European champion, was fifth despite a fall in an injury-troubled season. The 2023 champion Anastasiia Gubanova also fell and was 11th.

Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava are heading for a first European title in pairs. Their score of short-program score of 75.96 was enough to edge ahead of defending champions Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany, who could only manage 74.81. Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko of Hungary are third on 73.32.

All skaters other than Hase in the top three pairs were born in Russia and now represent other countries.

Russia isn't represented at the championships, although two Russian figure skaters have qualified for the Olympics under neutral status.

The pairs free skate is Thursday and the women's free skate is Friday.

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