ISU Grand Prix: GB's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson take silver in Sheffield
- Published
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson have now won four Grand Prix medals, including two silvers this season
British ice dancers Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson took a crowd-pleasing silver in Sheffield as the UK hosted an elite Grand Prix for the first time.
An error by Gibson in the free dance hurt their chance of overhauling Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, who led after the rhythm dance.
The Britons nevertheless brought the packed arena to its feet with a dynamic routine to a Lady Gaga medley.
"It is a memory and experience we won't forget," Fear, 23, told reporters.
Fear and Gibson had scored 85.37 for their rhythm dance to trail the Italians by just over a point, but any hopes of making up ground were extinguished when Gibson stumbled during a twizzle in Sunday's free dance. They scored 205.56 across both days, with Guignard and Fabbri on 213.74.
Gibson, 28, said competing in front of a home crowd, who waved a sea of Union flags and homemade 'Lilah and Lewis' banners, had surpassed their expectations.
"Of course I would like to have not had the little mistake... but we're still super happy with what we did," he said.
The pair came into the event top of this season's ice dance standings and remain in a strong position to qualify for next month's Grand Prix final but must wait on the results of the two remaining events to discover if they are one of the six couples through.
There was home interest in every discipline in Sheffield, with Natasha McKay posting a season's best in the women's free skate to finish 11th, while in the men's Graham Newberry and Edward Appleby placed 11th and 12th, and in the pairs Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby were seventh.
The Grand Prix series is a six-stop invitational competition for the world's leading skaters.
Sat nav mix-up and the wrong medal
The Italians who beat Fear and Gibson were lucky to even be in Sheffield in the first place, having followed sat nav to what they thought was their hotel - only to discover they were nearly two hours away in Birmingham.
It was not the only mix-up of the weekend as men's silver medallist Deniss Vasiljevs of Latvia hung the gold medal round his neck, before having to do a sheepish swap with Italy's Daniel Grassl on the podium.
But British Ice Skating will be pleased with how the event went - the stands were packed throughout - and it may give hope the UK could become a regular stop on the Grand Prix circuit after stepping in this time when China could not host because of coronavirus restrictions.
"I think we can both say we'd be thrilled for it to be a regular thing," Fear said.
There will be more elite figure skating in Sheffield, which will host the 2026 European Championships, providing the chance to see the continent's best talent just a few weeks before the Winter Olympics in Milan.