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Russia’s reigning figure skating Champ Maxim Kovtun wraps up with his sports career

Kovtun is two-time silver medalist of the European Championships, as well as the bronze medalist of the 2016 European Championship

Maxim Kovtun Donat Sorokin/TASS

Maxim Kovtun

© Donat Sorokin/TASS

MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Russian figure skating star in men’s singles Maxim Kovtun has decided to wrap up with his sports career, his coach Yelena Buyanova told TASS on Tuesday.

"I certainly do know that Maxim Kovtun has decided to wrap up with his career," Buyanova said. "I will refuse from commenting on the situation at the moment."

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Russia’s Kovtun skates to European silver, Spain’s Fernandez unbeatable

Buyanova added she did not know when exactly the figure skater made a decision to leave the sport.

In December 2017, Kovtun disappeared from figure skating tournaments for nearly a year and was back in November 2018 in Estonia at the Tallinn Trophy, which was part 2018/2019 ISU Challenger Series.

Kovtun, 23, is two-time silver medalist of the European Championships (2015, 2017), as well as the bronze medalist of the 2016 European Championship. He is also the two-time silver medalist in team competitions of the World Team Trophy (2015 and 2017).

The figure skater is the reigning champion of Russia. In all, he is the four time winner of the Russian Figure Skating Championships (2014, 2015, 2016, 2019).

He won silver in March at the 2019 FISU Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk and skipped the 2019 ISU World Skating Championships, in Japan’s Saitama on March 20-24, due to medical reasons.

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