Lepisto Wins the First European Title for a Finnish Singles Skater
Photo of Laura Lepisto by Adam Brunner.
The fans in Helsinki got what they had hoped for, as Laura Lepisto became the first singles skater from Finland to win the European Championships. In fact, Finland had a great showing, as Susanna Poykio finished third and Kiira Korpi finished fifth. Lepisto was the bronze medalist at Euros last season and improved her position largely because of her gorgeous spins and heavy favorite Carolina Kostner’s mistakes. Kostner doubled two of her planned triple jumps and didn’t get credit for one of her spins because it was the same as one that she had previously done in the program. “At the flip, my concentration slipped for a moment,” said Kostner. “I can’t say this was my best program of the season. I made different errors each time.”
Lepisto was elated after she saw her score and she later tried to describe her emotions by saying that “This feeling can’t be described. I can’t even start to tell what all is going through my mind now. I could never have expected this to happen. I had said my goal is to medal, but that it would be gold, I can’t realize it.”
