British ice dancers Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson missed out on a maiden European title as they took bronze in Sheffield on Saturday.
It means the wait for a first British victory in 32 years goes on, with Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean the last to win European gold in 1994.
But it is Fear and Gibson’s fourth European medal in a row, after back-to-back silvers in 2022-23 and 2023-24 and a bronze medal in last year’s edition, and they remain contenders to end Britain’s three-decade Olympic medal drought at next month’s Winter Games.
French 2022 Olympic champion Guillaume Cizeron and his new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry were the last to skate after topping Friday’s rhythm dance standings and coped with the pressure admirably to seal gold.
The pair only began skating together nine months ago but were the pre-event favourites and duly delivered, winning Fournier Beaudry’s first European title and Cizeron’s sixth.
They produced a free skate score of 135.50, a season’s best, for a combined score of 222.43 – nearly 12 points clear of second place, which was won by three-time European champions Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri.
Fear and Gibson earned a season’s best score of 85.47 with their rhythm dance routine to a Spice Girls medley, leaving them second on the leaderboard ahead of the free dance.
On Saturday the Sheffield crowd showed their appreciation for an energetic and action-packed rendition of their Scottish-themed free dance to The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) and Auld Lang Syne.
But it was not flawless and a minor slip-up coming out of their twizzles, along with small timing issues elsewhere, cost them dearly.
Their combined score of 209.51 was not enough to overhaul Guignard and Fabbri, who took silver with a score of 210.34 – 0.83 points more.
They came into the free dance in third place, 0.99 points behind the Brits, but produced a stunning performance to the ‘Diamanti’ soundtrack, a new season’s best score of 125.86 to guarantee themselves a fifth European medal in succession.
Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry were only 1.5 points ahead of Fear and Gibson after the rhythm dance but extended their lead with a near-flawless free skate to the soundtrack of ‘The Whale’.
Cizeron is now a six-time European champion but has been in the headlines both on and off the ice this week after his former skating partner Gabriella Papadakis released a memoir in which she accused him of being “controlling” and “demanding”. He in turn accused her of a “smear campaign” against him and threatened to take legal action.
While this may have been a disappointing finish for Fear and Gibson it is nevertheless another medal in a highly successful season, in which they took bronze at the Grand Prix Final for the second year in succession. Last year they won Britain’s first medal in 41 years at the world championships, a bronze, following in the footsteps of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who won the last of their four world titles in 1984.
This result caps a fine week for British skating. 20-year-old Phebe Bekker and her 24-year-old partner James Hernandez also produced a stellar skate on Saturday night, recording a season’s best of 106.75 with their routine to the ‘Romeo + Juliet’ soundtrack, to the delight of the Sheffield crowd.
The pair were 11th after a superb rhythm dance to a George Michael medley and remained in that position after the free skate to improve on their previous best at a European Championships, 13th place overall last year.
Pairs skaters Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby were unable to improve on their European best, fifth place last year, but still finished a commendable seventh. Singles skaters Kristen Spours – competing in her final season before retirement after an injury-hit couple of seasons – and Edward Appleby finished 23rd and 24th respectively.
