World Figure Skating Championships: Scottish skater Lewis Gibson says medal hopes are realistic possibility

The World Figure Skating Championships begins in Montreal on Wednesday

Scottish figure skater Lewis Gibson and his partner Lilah Fear are eyeing a place on the podium at the World Figure Skating Championships, which begin this week in Canada.

Mr Gibson, from Prestwick, said the pair were “ready to be in contention for a medal” at the event, which will see the top figure skaters from around the world battle it out in Montreal.

He said the Montreal championships, which were rescheduled after the city was forced to cancel the 2020 event due to the coronavirus pandemic, were a chance for he and Ms Fear, who train at the Canadian city’s prestigious Ice Academy of Montreal, to piggy back onto their Canadian competitors’ home championships.

Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear are hoping for a medal at the World Championships in Montreal this week.

Mr Gibson, who with Ms Fear, placed fourth at the Grand Prix final late last year and also won the couple’s second silver medal at the European Championships, said: “We are super excited to start our official practices here in Montreal. Our training has been strong in the lead up to this championships and are keen to show that here this weekend. We’re excited and ready to be in contention for a medal and looking forward to the performances.

“In 2020, when the championships were cancelled it felt like our world was ripped from beneath our feet, little did we know the magnitude and perspective at the time. Yet, know having the chance to compete in Montreal, our training location, just feels like such a great honour. Almost feels like we’re scraping in on the Canadians’ home world championships.”

The Scottish skater’s closest rivals in the ice dance competition will be Italian couple Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, as well as Canadians Piper Gillies and Paul Poirier and last year’s gold medal winners, Madison Chock and Evan Bates, from the US.

Meanwhile, Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby, from Dundee, will represent Britain in the pairs competition. The pair, who placed 9th at the European Figure Skating Championships in January, said they had taken a break from competitions in the run-up to the World Championships in a bid to focus on training.

Ms Vaipan-Law said: “We just want to go out there and enjoy the moments and make sure we come off the ice knowing we put our all into it and be proud of what we’ve done.

“Since Europeans, we decided to take a little bit more time to train and not compete between then and worlds. Mainly this was to focus on the consistency of the elements so that we felt confident coming into worlds, knowing we’ve worked hard back at home.”

She added: “We are really excited to be here and look forward to performing Montreal this week.”

Meanwhile, British national silver ice dance medallists, Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez, from Guildford, will be competing in their first world championships at the senior level, the first time there have been two couples in the ice dance competition since Ms Fear’s sister, Sasha and her partner George Waddell, placed 17th two years ago.

In the women’s competition, Nina Povey, from Sheffield, will compete after placing 17th in the European Figure Skating Championships, while Edward Appleby, from Romford will compete in the men’s event.