French ice dancers take European gold

French ice dancers Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat successfully defended their title at the European figure skating championships here on Friday. Pechalat, 28, and Bourzat, 31, had trailed in second after Wednesday's short programme, but scored 99.29 points for their Egyptian-themed free dance for an overall total of 164.18 points to take the gold ahead of two Russian couples. Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev dropped to silver medal position with 95.17 and 160.23 overall with Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov claiming bronze with 93.63 and 153.12 overall. "There's more emotion than for the first title," admitted Bourzat. "We fought to have it and it's our second. No French skater has done back-to-back titles until now. Now we have two years to get the (world) title. "After the Vancouver Games (2010) I said 'if I continue it's to be European champion four times' so there's two to go!" The French couple, who have been skating together for 12 years, finished fourth at the last two world championships, and will be bidding for their first world podium at home in Nice next March.