Ice dancing: The Kerrs fizz with their tango routine

MURRAYFIELD ice dancers John and Sinead Kerr set their best-ever score as they finished a close fourth in the Compulsory Dance at the European Figure Skating Championships in Tallinn.

The brother and sister pairing began their quest to follow up last year's bronze medal in Helsinki with a mark of 36.76 points for their Tango, bettering their previous best performance in Paris last October.

The seven-time British champions trail Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali by just 0.71 points going into tomorrow's Original Dance and Friday night's Free Dance.

They are also within a point of the second-placed couple, Russia's defending European champions Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski, leaving everything to play for in the final major event before next month's Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"We know it will be hard to repeat as bronze medalists with (Russian leaders and world champions) Oksana Domnina and Max Shabalin back after missing last year, but we've still got two sections to go," said John.