Skate Canada: Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson wins silver in first major event of new figure skating season

Lewis Gibson and Lilah Fear came fourth in the World Figure Skating Championships earlier this year

Scottish ice dancer Lewis Gibson and his partner Lilah Fear have kicked off the new skating season with a silver medal in their first major event of the year.

The British pair scooped second place at the Skate Canada International Grand Prix event, one of six held over the next two months, in the third Grand Prix silver medal win of their career.

Sitting in second place after Friday’s rhythm dance, where they scored 83.51, the pair held their overall position, scoring a season’s best score of 126.04 in the free dance final, finishing 10 points overall behind winners Paul Poirier and Piper Gillies of Canada – and 17 points in front of bronze medallists Alison Reid and Saulius Ambrulevicius, who won the first ever Grand Prix medal for Lithuania.

Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson skate their free dance during the ISU Grand Prix of figure skating, Skate Canada International in Vancouver, Canada. Picture: AFP via Getty Images

Mr Gibson, from Prestwick and Ms Fear will also compete at the NHK Trophy in Japan, where they will hope to secure a place in the final in China in December.

Last season, they won fourth place in the World Figure Skating Championships and scooped a European silver medal.

Ms Fear said they wanted their free dance – to music from the film Rocky - to be “a little unexpected and different.”

“We like to just show our personality and what we're drawn to and we know that everyone in the crowd loves Rocky, hopefully as we do. Just the themes are so universal of believing in yourself, overcoming adversity, and finding that triumph by believing in yourself.

"I think that we relate to that so much and everyone does in their own way. A lot of people have connected with this program and we've had a lot of great reinforcement and can't wait to build upon it.”

In the women’s category, two-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto won her event by a clear 25 points over 16-year-old Chaeyeon Kim of Korea, who was making her Grand Prix debut, while her teammate, Sota Yamamoto, demonstrated four quadruple jumps to win his first Grand Prix gold medal. In the pairs event, Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps smashed their personal best scores to finish more than 25 points ahead of their closest rival.