Moris Kvitelashvili makes history for Georgia with European Figure Skating Championships bronze
Moris Kvitelashvili celebrates with his bronze medal at the European Championships in Graz, Austria on Thursday. Photo via Georgian National Olympic Committee on Facebook.
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Georgia's Moris Kvitelashvili made history in Graz on Thursday by becoming the first male figure skater from the country to claim a medal at the European Championships.
The 24-year-old finished men's programme at the Austrian city's Steiermark Halle venue with the bronze medal, taking the third step of the podium behind Dmitry Aliev and Artur Danielian of Russia.
The result marked the first medal-winning performance for a male figure skater from Georgia and the first medal for an athlete from the country since Elene Gedevanishvili earned her bronze in Sheffield in 2012.
Kvitelashvili entered the free skating and short programmes of the competition in quest for honours in the men's section, emerging with third position in the former category and as fourth-placed competitor in the latter.
The free category saw the Georgian collect 163.94 points, behind 168.27 amassed by Italy's Daniel Grassl and Aliev in the first with 184.44. In the short programme his result was 82.77 points, with Danielian coming away from his fixture with 84.63, Aliev reaching a tally of 88.45 and winner Michal Brezina of Czech Republic finishing with 89.77.
The combined tallies from the two categories saw Kvitelashvili earn the bronze with 246.71 points, just 0.03 behind Danielian's 246.74. Aliev finished with 272.89 in first.
Born in Moscow, the figure skater is coached by Eter Tutberidze and Sergei Dudakov and has represented Georgia since 2017, becoming the first Georgian skater to win a medal at a Grand Prix event in 2018 when he took a silver at the 2018 Rostelecom Cup.
Georgia will be further represented at the ongoing championships by the pair of Maria Kazakova and Giorgi Reviya - who in December won the gold at the Junior Grand Prix in Turin - and Alina Urushadze in the women's section.