Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitry Soloviev have grabbed gold in the ice dance at the European Figure Skating Championships in Zagreb, leaving another Russian pair, Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov, close behind.

Bobrova and Soloviev, who were leading after the short program, scored a total score of 169.25 after losing the free dance to fellow Russians.

The highest free dance score, however, didn’t allow Ilinykh and Katsalapov reach the top spot as they earned 169.14 overall. Italy’s Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte settled for bronze with 165.80.

“It’s good that within our country we have such strong opponents,” the R-Sport agency quotes Soloviev as saying. “We grow, pull each other up. Thanks to the competition, we don’t relax. It really stimulates us to progress.”

This was Russia’s second gold at the tournament. Earlier, Tatiana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov won the pairs competition.

Meanwhile, Nikita Katsalapov didn’t try to hide his disappointment but promised to do better at the World Champs.

“I don’t know how I feel at this moment,” he told the ISU website. “We’re a little bit disappointed with the marks. We won the Free Dance and we’re less than half a point from the gold. So we will have to do it at worlds.”

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