TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Anastasiia Gubanova took a narrow lead in the short program as she aims to regain her title at the European figure skating championships on Wednesday.

With defending champion Loena Hendrickx ruled out by an ankle injury, the competition was wide open, and just .31 of a point separated the top three skaters.

Skating to a cover of Abba’s “Money, Money, Money,” the 2023 European champion landed a triple flip-triple toeloop combination, a double axel and a triple lutz to score 68.99 points.

Gubanova heads into Friday’s decisive free skate with a .05-point advantage over Estonia’s Niina Petrokina, who delighted her home crowd with a clean program including a triple lutz-triple toeloop combination. Swiss skater Kimmy Repond, the 2023 bronze medalist, is third on 68.68.

Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin put themselves firmly on course for their first European figure skating title in the pairs short program.

Anastasiia Gubanova takes a narrow lead at European figure skating championships | iNFOnews.ca — Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin of Germany perform during the pairs short program at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Coming off a win at the Grand Prix Final last month, Hase and Volodin skated a clean program, except for a one-point penalty for a time violation, to score 71.59 points.

The Germans lead by just over three points from Sara Conti and Niccolo Macii of Italy, who dropped points when Conti put a knee down on landing a throw triple loop.

Hungary’s Maria Pavlova and Alexei Sviatchenko are third on 65.88.

Last year’s European champions Lucrezia Beccari and Matteo Guarise of Italy aren’t defending their title because of a season-ending foot injury for Beccari that required surgery. The pairs free skate is Thursday.

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