Lewis and Lilah set for medal in European Figure Skating Championships

Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson and partner Lilah Fear look set to bag the UK’s first major figure skating medal in eight years after a strong start in the European Figure Skating Championships.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are set for a podium finish at the European Figure Skating Championships in Finland.

The pair are currently lying in silver medal position after the rhythm dance at the competition in Espoo, Finland – scoring 84.12, just over one point behind Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri.

The last British medal at the European Figure Skating Championships was in 2014, when ice dancers Penny Coomes and Nicholas Buckland scooped bronze.

Finns Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis are lying in third place.

Gibson, from Prestwick, told The Scotsman: “Honestly, if we were ten points ahead or ten points behind, for us it really is the same. We just want to go out there and skate our best.

The couple said they have made changes and improvements to their free dance throughout the season, which Gibson described as “fun”. The free dance final will take place on Saturday.

"We want to elevate the performance and do the best performance we can,” Fear added.

"Since we started, we’ve had this dream planted to take it [competing] as far as we can through our passion and our hard work.”

Fabbri said he and Guignard had been happy with their performance.

"It’s been probably the easiest rhythm dance of the season, so were happy this happened at Europeans,” he said, adding that they like to treat the next day’s skate separately.

On Thursday night, Dundee pairs skaters Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby finished in 10th place in their second Europeans as a team, scoring a total of 137.49 – ten points short of their personal best.

After the pairs competition, Ms Vaipan-Law said: “We both know we're more than capable of doing the things that are in that program, if not more. But we're still on this learning curve, we're taking each competition as it is, and whatever happens, happens.”

Gibson and Fear placed second at two Grand Prix competitions this season – including the UK’s first ever competition of its kind in Sheffield - coming fourth overall in the Grand Prix Final in December.