The German top duo Minerva-Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin successfully starts the World Cup in Boston. Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel disappoint.
The German top duo Minerva-Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin has successfully started the figure skating world championships in Boston. The European champions and Grand Prix winners ran a strong short program in the US state of Massachusetts and are in third place with 73.59 points. Before the freestyle on Friday (from 11:15 p.m./Discovery+), the Berliners have all chances of a medal.
The second German starter Annika Hocke/Robert Kunkel (Berlin) meanwhile experienced a difficult disappointment. The duo, which had convinced fifth place at the World Cup last year, saved itself after a failed short program and 55.16 points on the 20th place in the freestyle.
Hase, 2024 on Volodin’s side of the World Cup, was satisfied. “It was a safe short program. We are pleased that there were no big mistakes and that we are on a medal course,” said the 25-year-old: “We hope that we will keep our space and maybe land a little higher. But first you have to run a clean freestyle.”
The Japanese vice world champions Riku Miura/Ryuichi Kihara provided the top value, with 76.57 points ahead of the Vice European Masters Sara Conti/Niccolo Maccii from Italy (74.61). The Canadian defending champion Deanna Stellato-Dudek/Maxime Deschamps (67.32) did not get beyond seventh place.
Hase/Volodin confidently performed about the music of Tami Neilson (“You Were Mine”). The duo showed clean and liquid elements and kept the level constant. However, the performance of the training was not when you come from, said Hase: “It wasn’t quite. But everything is open.”
There was a depressed mood in the hoccade and Kunkel. In the performance (“I Love Rock N ‘Roll”), Kunkel fell on the second element, as a result, crouched technical errors. “I don’t know what happened,” said Hocke and deeply breathed through: “It feels like you couldn’t show it in competition. It hurts. The most important thing is that we stick together. We know that we can.”