Niina Petrokina fell, got back up, and completed the skate of her life. A freak fall on a transition between jumps threatened to derail Petrokina's bid for the European figure skating title but she recovered with a program that otherwise bordered on flawless to win a surprise gold medal on Friday.

Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin put themselves firmly on course for their first European figure skating title Wednesday in the pairs short program. Coming off a win at the Grand Prix Final last month,

Anastasiia Gubanova has taken a narrow lead in the short program as she aims to regain her title at the European figure skating championships.