Olympic champ Zagitova in Minsk with something to prove

Russia’s Olympic figure skating champion Alina Zagitova is hoping to end a series of disappointing results and defend her European title this week.
The 16-year-old wooed the judges and audience at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018.
But things have not gone her way since South Korea.
She finished fifth at the world championships in Milan in March last year and second at the ISU Grand Prix series finals in Vancouver in December
Only fifth too in the Russian Nationals she has something to prove on the ice of Minsk’s 15,000-seat arena where the European Championships get underway on Wednesday.
“I’ve got a lot of bitter experience from my defeats and now I know what exactly I need to do to prepare for the next tournament in the best way,” Zagitova told R-Sport agency.
“I grew up and came to realise that I need to focus on my own skating regardless of how my rivals have performed. “I just need to skate at my best every time when I compete and that, I believe, should be the key for success.”
Spanish two-time world champion Javier Fernandez is in Minsk targeting a seventh successive continental crown to equal the record of Russia’s skating icon Yevgeny Plushenko.
This is expected to be the 27-year-old Pyeongchang bronze medallist’s final European championships.
“I retire this season,” Fernandez said at an event organised by Spanish newspaper ABC, adding: “I prefer to retire when I think it’s the right moment, when I’m happy with my sporting career and when I have a project for the future.”
French ice dance stars Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, three-time world champions and four-time European title winners, are also expected to make their presence felt.
The French pair missed the Vancouver Grand Prix finals after Cizeron’s back injury forced them to withdraw from competing at the NHK Trophy in November.