There was speed skating and Ice Dance success for Great Britain over the weekend as Lilah & Lewis and Cornelius Kersten secured podium places at two major ISU events.
Kersten picked up a silver medal in the B-Division 1000m at the opening World Cup of the season, skating a time of 1:09.503. He finished just 0.11 seconds behind South Korea’s Min Kyu Cha.
The 27-year-old said: “It’s been a fantastic weekend to start the World Cup season.
“I am happy to see all the hard work is paying off and I’m feeling super confident ahead of racing next weekend.”
The result means he will skate in the 1000m A-Division at the second World Cup that gets underway in Norway on Friday 19th. He had earlier finished 7th in the 1500m with a time of 1:48.602.
Also racing in Poland were Ellia Smeding and Gemma Cooper. Smeding finished the 1000m in 1:19.765 and 500m in 40.379.
Cooper came 14th in the Mass Start and skated the 3000m in 4:37.190.
Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson capped a brilliant performance at the NHK Trophy in Japan with a bronze medal. The pair recorded a season’s best 76.43 points in the Rhythm Dance, highlights being their fast twizzles and a whirling rotational lift.
They scored 115.48 in the free Dance to end on 191.91 to win their second ever ISU Grand Prix medal.
Speaking to isu.org Fear said: “I think we put in a lot of work in the days between Skate Canada and coming here.
“We had a lot of improvements to make and a lot of feedback from that competition so I was happy with what we put out and I feel like we implemented a lot of the things that we worked on."
She added: “It was a lot of fun and having a crowd is something we’ve missed so much. Just being out there on warm up and have them there cheering for us was such an honour and privilege.”