Carolina shrugged off a bungled jump in the middle of her free skate routine and finished with 174.79 points, leapfrogging leader Sarah Meier of Switzerland who took silver with 171.28 points. Finland's Kiira Korpi took bronze far back with 151.19 points.
Reuters &nbs p; By Matt Reynolds &n bsp; Saturday Jan 27, 2007
WARSAW (Reuters) - Italy's Carolina Kostner battled back from a leg injury that had sidelined her for most of the season to win her first European figure skating title on Saturday.
The tall, powerful skater shrugged off a bungled jump in the middle of her free skate routine and finished with 174.79 points, leapfrogging leader Sarah Meier of Switzerland who took silver with 171.28 points.
"I skated one of my best free programs ever," said Kostner. "Not because of the jumps but because I felt so good on the ice."
"(I am) just speechless," she added. "What a fun two days."
Kostner, 19, came to Warsaw's Torwar arena as a dark horse after winning bronze last year but missing all this season's grand prix events because of torn ligaments. She resumed training last month.
"Being injured actually helped me because I came here without expectations," she said. "It was easy to be relaxed."
Meier landed awkwardly several times during her free program and seemed to run out of gas by the end of it.
"I am both happy and sad," the Swiss said. "My goal was to win a medal. But my performance was not like I imagined and I lost first place."
Finland's Kiira Korpi took bronze with 151.19 points.
Kostner said she would stay relaxed heading into the world championships in Tokyo in March by focusing on her academic studies.
"I need to study for exams," she said. "That should keep me from worrying too much about Tokyo. I just want to enjoy the world championships like I enjoyed the competition here."
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