SPAIN'S 'ace on ice' Javier Fernández has won his sixth consecutive European championship title – a feat not achieved in over 80 years.
Before Fernández, the last person to win more than five consecutive European titles was Austria's Karl Schäfer, who netted eight on the trot between 1929 and 1936.
Madrid-born Javier, twice-world figure skating champion, appeared to have it in the bag already ahead of Wednesday's final in Moscow, having beaten 35 others by a comfortable margin with a total of 191.73 points in the Short Programme – well ahead his nearest rival Dmitri Aliev, who was competing on home turf.
After an impressive Free Skate routine on Friday night, Fernández finished this year's championship competition on a final score of 295.55, ahead of Aliev's 274.06 and third-placed Mikhail Kolyada, also from Russia, on 258.90.
The other Spanish national in the finals – Felipe Montoya, who is originally Colombian but has a Spanish passport – came 20th.
Javier's success looked set almost from the start when his 'Charlie Chaplin' routine earlier in the week earned him a wide margin over Aliev. His 'Man of la Mancha' routine in the Free Skate programme proved to be just as popular with the judges.
All he needs now to complete his reputation as one of the finest figure skaters in history is an Olympic gold, and he has treated this European Championship as a warm-up event to next month's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
He has already won two world championship titles, in 2015 and 2016, in addition to his six consecutive European titles.
Javier took part in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and came 14th, but earned a much-improved fourth place with an Olympic diploma at Sochi 2014.
He said he is 'very happy' and 'very excited' after achieving the historic sixth European title, as was his trainer, Canadian Brian Orser.
SPAIN'S last-minute win against England in the 2024 UEFA Euros comes on the 60th anniversary of the country's first-ever title in the much-followed competition – and has broken numerous records, too.
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