Lewis Gibson: Highest British medal win since Torvill and Dean for Scottish ice dancer

Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson pose with a flag during the victory ceremony after the Ice Dance event of the ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Espoo, Finland.

Gibson and Fear battled Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri for the top spot at the competition in Espoo, finishing less than three points behind the other couple in second place.

The medal is the best performance from a British ice skater since ice skating legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won gold at Europeans and the World Championships in 1994. Previous British Champions Penny Coombes and Nicholas Buckland won bronze at the event eight years ago.

The couple, who train at the prestigious Ice Academy of Montreal in Canada, scored 123.77 points in the free dance for a total of 207.89. Fabbri and Guignard scored an overall total of 210.44 after going into the free dance one point in the lead.

Finns Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis came in third, after a close competition for the bronze medal spot with Alison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius of Lithuania.

Gibson, from Prestwick, said he hoped that the couple’s performance would inspire young skaters in Scotland and the UK.

Connecticut-born Fear said: “It is a big mission of ours to encourage as many young people as possible to get into the sport in Great Britain, so if they get to see us on on TV, they can see what’s possible and feel the joy that we feel and get out there.”

She added: “[The win] hasn't quite sunk in yet. That is very humbling. It was intense in the best way. Because obviously it's such an amazing opportunity here. And we know that we worked so hard the past few weeks, and we really wanted to put out a performance that reflected that, and we did.

“There was a little mistake in the steps, but I'm so proud of our recovery, our ability to refocus and enjoy the entire program,” she added.

Fabbri said: "As much as we were prepared for this competition, today was much harder compared to yesterday to handle it, so it has been tougher to skate tonight.”

He added: “It has been a long journey to get to this point and we couldn’t be happier,” Fabbri said. “It is difficult to express our feelings. It's a work of a lifetime and a real dream come true.”

Turkkila said it was a “dream come true” to skate in front of a home crowd in Finland.

Meanwhile, British women’s champion Natasha McKay finished in 19th place. The Dundee-based skater, who has won the British title six times, has suggested that she is likely to retire after this season.

The women’s competition was won by Anastasiia Gubanova of Georgia, making history for her country as the first to win an ISU Championship. Belgium’s World silver medalist and top favorite Loena Hendrickx settled for the silver medal, while 16-year-old Kimmy Repond of Switzerland earned the bronze in her debut at the ISU European Championships.

The World Figure Skating Championships is the next major ice skating competition set to take place in Japan in March.