European Championships- Ladies

Elizaveta Tuktamysheva won the ladies event in Stockholm. She has really next to no competition. It seems right now the only person with any chance of beating her is Elena Radionova. However Tuktamysheva has been working on the triple axle, and if she decides to add it to her program she will be unstoppable. I for one thought that after the short program Tuktamysheva would be willing to throw in the 3A to secure the win, but it's clear now that she doesn't need it, at least as long as they both continue to skate the way they did in Stockholm. However, the more ladies that start to add the 3A to their arsenal, the better for women's figure skating.

Elena Radionova has the typical Russian flair. Her short program is wonderfully tacky, but her freeskate lacks the fun and energy of the short. As such a young skater, we can only hope that she maintains the technique she has and that physical changes do not impact her skating like they did Lipnitskaia . She is always entertaining to watch, but I have to say, she should have stuck to the free skate dress from Russian nationals.

Anna Pogorilaya is not the most consistent of the Russian ladies, but she finished strong in third place behind her teammates. However she doesn't seem to have a connection to the music she skates to. The Firebird as her choice of freeskate music does not work in her favour. She doesn't connect with the music. She seems to be skating with music in the background. Like Max Aaron, the music should engage the crowd but doesn't because of the skating. Her personality doesn't come through, so when the jumps don't work, almost nothing works. It is time for her to focus on improving her relationship with her music, which will help her to improve that second mark and make up for potential mistakes in the jumps.

Joshi Helgesson and Viktoria Helgesson had a home crowd advantage, skating on home ice. The crowd was clearly behind them both, and this worked in their favour. They skated well and finished strong in fourth and fifth, better than many expected of them.