Gabriella Papadakis and Guilaume Cizeron defended their title at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia. Yet the reigning World champions returned in style, turned in two strong performances and took the gold at the Ondrej Nepela Arena.

Italy’s Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte earned the silver, while Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of Russia secured the bronze.

Papadakis and Cizeron, who stood in second following the short dance, delivered a mesmerizing dance to “Rain In Your Black Eyes.” They seemed to flow over the ice, showing off effortless edges and creating a perfect unison between them and the music. Their difficult elements were smoothly incorporated into the routine. The twizzles, the spin, the footwork as well as two lifts garnered a level four. The straight line lift merited a level three. Papadakis and Cizeron scored 111.97 points and totaled 182.71 points.

“I think it feels even more amazing than last year, because we proved that we can do it again,” said Cizeron. “We managed to have a really great moment during the performance and the audience shared this program with us.”

“We are very proud that we did a great, great job in this free dance and that we did even better than we have ever done in practice,” Papadakis added. “It was a really magical moment and we are just very proud of everything.”