World Figure Skating Championships: Dundee skaters Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby qualify for free skate final in Montreal

The pairs skaters, from Dundee, have qualified for the free skate at their second world championships

Dundee pairs skaters Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby have qualified for the free skate at the World Figure Skating Championships in Canada.

The championships, in Montreal, began with the pairs short programme, where Ms Vaipan-Law and Mr Digby scored 54.69, two points below their personal best this season of 56.79, scored at the European Figure Skating Championships earlier this year. They placed 16th in last year’s World Championships.

Ms Vaipan-Law said the smaller size of North American rinks compared to those in Europe was “challenging”, but praised the support of the Canadian audience.

Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby, from Dundee, qualified for the free skate.

She said: “The rink size is kind of challenging for everyone from Europe, but we had some time to adapt over the last two days. When you come to Canada, you always know there’s going to be a good supportive crowd.”

Mr Digby said: “We’re pretty happy with the skate. We qualified for the free, which is great.”

The pair, who train with coaches Simon and Debi Briggs at Ice Dundee and are skating in their second World Championships, made a couple of errors, leaving them in 20th place after the short programme. The top 20 pairs of 24 competitors qualify for the free skate.

The competition is led by Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps of Canada, who scored 77.48, ahead of Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara of Japan. Meanwhile, Niccolo Macii and Sara Conti from Italy, last year’s bronze medallists, are lying in third. Ms Stellato-Dudek, 40, returned to skating in the pairs competition in 2016, after a 16 year break following her singles career.

Dundee's Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby, pictuered here at the European Figure Skating Championships earlier this year.

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The pairs competition concludes on Thursday, after the men’s short programme.

Nina Povey, from Sheffield, was set to compete for Great Britain in the women’s competition on Wednesday night, while the mens’ competition begins on Thursday.

Britain’s medal hopefuls, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, from Prestwick, will skate their rhythm dance programme on Friday, followed by the free dance final on Saturday. The pair came fourth in last year’s World Championships and won the silver medal at the European Figure Skating Championships this year.