Fourth place finish in rhythm dance at Grand Prix final for Fear and Gibson

The couple have competed for three straight weekends

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are competing in the Grand Prix final.

A disappointing skate in the rhythm dance after three straight weekends of competition has dampened hopes of a medal in the Grand Prix of Figure Skating final for Scottish skater Lewis Gibson and partner Lilah Fear.

The pair scored 76.24 in the rhythm dance of the ice dance competition of the Grand Prix final in China - almost nine points below their top Grand Prix score of 84.93 at the NHK Trophy, where they scooped gold. However, the final comes after the couple also competed in the NHK Trophy Grand Prix in Japan in late November, followed by the British Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield last weekend.

Fear said the couple were fighting jet lag, having flown from Canada - where they train - to Japan, then to the UK for the national championships and on to China, all in the past two weeks.

She said: “We see the Grand Prix Final as a great bonus. It was never a question for us to miss nationals. We love representing Great Britain and we wanted to skate for the people from our country that support us there.”

The couple scored a negative grade of execution on their twizzle sequence, skating after two Canadian pairs, Marjorie LaJoie and Zachary Lagha and Laurence Fournier-Beaudry and Nikolaj Sorensen, who both also made errors in their twizzles.

Fear said: “Today was a great mental exercise to stay focused after a mistake on the first element.”

Gibson, from Prestwick, added: “We lost quite a few points, that’s for sure.”

Sorensen, who with Fournier Beaudry, is lying in fifth place, said: “[It was] not what we wanted, not what we expected. But I guess stuff like this just happens. We feel like we have nothing to lose at this competition.”

Gibson and Fear are nine points behind Canadians Piper Gillies and Paul Poirier in third place, a score difference which will be difficult to make up in tomorrow’s free skate to win a place on the podium.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates, from the US, are in first place after the rhythm dance, scoring 89.15, with Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri in second with 85.82 points.