SINEAD and John Kerr earned an impressive eighth place in the opening round of the ice dance competition at the European Figure Skating Championships yesterday and are in a strong position before the original dance section tomorrow.
The Kerrs’ smooth display and good expression in the compulsory dance — the Tango Romantica — earned them an overall score of 31.96, which will be combined with their scores for the original dance and free dance when the competition concludes on Friday.
The Kerrs, who are siblings and originate from Livingston, divide their training between Murrayfield and Deeside, where they work with John Slater, the former world silver medal-winner. Their twelfth-place finish in the World Championships last year qualified them for the Winter Olympic Games next month in Turin, where they will be Great Britain’s sole figure skating entry.
The Kerrs face formidable competition this week with four couples who finished in the top six at the World Championships last year in the field of 22 couples. The battle for gold is fierce. The leaders are Elena Grushina and Ruslan Goncharov, from Ukraine, with Margarita Drobiazko and Povilas Vanagas, from Lithuania, lying second and Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, from Russia, the world champions and defending champions here, third.
Phillipa Towler-Green and Phillip Poole, Britain’s No 2 ranked couple, are in twentieth place.