European Figure Skating Championships: 'Memories for a lifetime' for Dundee pairs skaters
Dundee skaters Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby were in fifth place after the short programme on Wednesday
Scottish figure skaters Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby have said they have made “memories for a lifetime” as they skated in the pairs final of the European Figure Skating Championships on British ice in Sheffield.
The pair, who train at Ice Dundee, said they were “grateful” to have had the chance of a major home championships during their careers, despite mistakes which saw them finish seventh in the overall competition.
The European Figure Skating Championships is being held at Sheffield Arena this week in the first major figure skating competition of its kind in the UK for 14 years.
The pairs competition was won by Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava from Georgia, who scored 215.76 points overall. The silver medal was taken by Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin from Germany and bronze by Maria Pavolva and Alexei Sviatchenko from Hungary.
Vaipan-Law and Digby, who came ninth in last year’s European championships, were lying in fifth place after Wednesday’s short programme.
They scored 109.54 in the short programme and 173.52 points overall.
Vaipan-Law said of the chance to skate in front of a British crowd: “It’s just incredible. It’s something we don’t get experience of very often and I’m grateful we were able to experience this in our careers. It’s something I will remember for sure.”
Digby said: “It’s been a chance to make memories for a lifetime. This home support, you can’t beat it.”
He added: “It wasn’t our best performance, but overall, we’re happy we could do it in front of a home crowd.”
Metelkina and Berulava are the first Georgian team to win a European gold medal.
Berulava said: “We already have a silver and a bronze at a European championships, but today we finally we finally won a gold medal.”
Metelkina added: “The Olympic Games are really important to us and I don’t want to stop until I win the Olympic gold.”
Friday will see the start of the ice dance competition, when Lewis Gibson, from Prestwick and partner Lilah Fear will compete for a podium spot.
Gibson and Fear, eight-time British champions, have medalled at the European Championships three times.
Guillaume Cizeron, with new partner Laurence Fournier-Beaudry, from France, are also to be in contention for a medal, along with Lithuanians Allison Reed and Saulius Ambrulevicius and Italians Marco Fabbri and Charlene Guignard.
In the men’s competition, Great Britain’s Edward Appleby, from Romford, qualified for the free skate in 22nd place, while in the women’s competition, Swindon’s Kristen Spours also qualified for the free skate final in 22nd place. The other British competitor in the women’s category, Nina Povey, from Sheffield, did not qualify for the free skate, finishing the competition in 31st place.
Vaipan-Law and Digby, along with Gibson and Fear, ice dancers Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez from Guildford, Spours and Appleby, will compete in the Winter Olympic Games next month in both the individual and team competitions.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.