The 2012 European Championships will take place in England, January 25-29. About 200 figure skaters from more than 30 European countries are going to take part in the competitions. Alena will participate in Europeans for the 4th time in her career. Once again she will contend for the podium with such strong skaters as Carolina Kostner (Italy), Kiira Korpi (Finland), Ksenia Makarova (Russia), Elene Gedevanishvili and other seasoned rivals from Germany, France and Sweden. Ladies' field is the most representative one this year: there are 41 skaters from 32 countries in the initial entry list. 18 of them will enter the main competitions directly, and the other 10 participants of the short program will be selected in the preliminary round, which Alena won't have to compete in. Moreover, in the short program she will skate in one of the two last warm-up groups. She will leave for England on January 24.