Olympic Champions Gordeeva, Grinkov Take European Title

Olympic champions Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov of the Soviet Union won the pairs title today at the European Figure Skating Championships.

Skating to Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet,” Gordeeva and Grinkov earned a perfect 6.0 from one judge in addition to 5.8s and 5.9s from the nine other judges.

Soviet pairs finished second and third. Larisa Selezneva and Oleg Makarov were second, and Natalia Mishkutiunok and Artur Dmitriev, who led after the original program, were third.

Gordeeva and Grinkov, three-time world champions, were third going into the final free program, worth 67% of the total mark. The mistakes they had the previous night were missing today as they enthralled the crowd with grace and beauty as well as doing the difficult pair moves.

The other two Soviet pairs fell on their opening moves, individual triple toe loop jumps.

It was the second European title for Gordeeva and Grinkov.

Natalia Lebedeva of the Soviet Union continued to head the women’s standings. She had the best original program, which counts for 30% of the final score. She completed all of the eight required elements cleanly, performing

Earlier in the day, Richard Zander, an American on the West German team, took the lead in the men’s figures after compulsory figures, which count for 20% of the total mark.