Tarasova and Morozov clinch European pairs gold

The duo had previously won bronze on two occasions at the European Championships in 2015 and 2016 but finally got their hands on gold after an impressive performance in the Czech Republic.

They had been leading after Wednesday's short program by over six points and, while their free skate program was only enough to be scored second best overall with 148.59, it was still enough for them to clinch the overall win on 227.58.

Germany's world bronze medallists Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot finished top in the free skate after their routine scored 148.59 but could only move up to silver overall on 222.35.

France's Vanessa James and Morgan Cipres completed the podium after slipping down to third after their free skate to finish on 220.02.

Earlier Italy's ice dancing duo Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte opened up a narrow lead in the short dance, edging out Russia's Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev of Russia by less than a point.

Defending champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France sit close behind in third.

Cappellini and Lanotte achieved a new personal best of 76.65 points to edge out their Russian rivals who also scored a personal best of 76.18.

"We've been craving to give this program a good go and waited for such a performance like this all season," Lanotte said.

"That (being in the lead) is definitely a good thing. But the competition is not over yet, it's only half of the way. We need to not care about this."

Friday sees the conclusion of the ladies individual competition as well as the start of the men's competition while the ice dance competition concludes on Saturday. Sportsbeat 2017