Ice dancers 'proud' of clean free dance to finish in fourth place

The gold was won by Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the US

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson skate to music from Rocky.

Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson and partner Lilah Fear said they were “proud” of their performance in the free dance of the Grand Prix final in China – performing a clean skate after a costly mistake left them in fourth place after Friday’s rhythm dance.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates won their first Grand Prix final in the seventh time they have competed in the event.

Gibson and Fear finished in fourth position after the free dance, following a disappointing skate yesterday, which left them almost ten points behind Piper Gillies and Paul Poirier of Canada, who retained their bronze medal position after the free dance. The silver medal was won by Italian skaters Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, who scored 215.51 overall, two weeks after being beaten by Fear and Gibson in a grand prix event in Japan.

Fear and Gibson skated to music from the film Rocky, dressed in boxing outfits.

Fear said: “We are especially proud of what we have shown today because we had to come back after a disappointing skate yesterday. We were so fired up because we knew what we are capable of.

“We know that some people hate it our programme, some love it. But we totally love it and we stay true to it. Once you take a risk, you have to commit to it.”

Gibson and Fear qualified for the final for the first time last year – the first British ice dance pair in 13 years to do so - finishing fourth overall.

There are no other British skaters in the competition, or in the rest of the Grand Prix series. The women’s competition was won by Sakamoto Kaori, of Japan, on 225.70 points, 22 points ahead of Belgian Loena Hendrickx.

Meanwhile, gold in the pairs competition was scooped by Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin from Germany, who scored 206.43 points, pipping Sara Conti and Niccolò Macii from Italy.

The men’s competition was won by Ilia Malinin, from the US, the first man ever to land a quad axel in competition in Friday’s short programme. His mother, Tatiana Malinina, won the women’s event 24 years ago.