Their free dance was solid, but they did not earn the best marks on some of their elements, which they will need to improve on when they look for gold in Vancouver next month.

The seven-time Italian champions Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali won both the original dance and free dance, but could only reach their second consecutive European silver medal.

Another pair from Russia, reigning European champions Yana Khokhlova and Sergey Novitsky, won the bronze medal.

With the women’s continental champion yet to be decided, Team Russia has so far claimed three golds out of three. Earlier, Yuko Kawaguchi and Aleksandr Smirnov won the pairs competition, and Evgeny Pluschenko became the best among the men.