Scottish ice dancer on track for Olympic hopes after Grand Prix final bronze win

The pair moved up to place third after the free dance final, beating fourth place pair Piper Gillies and Paul Poirier by just 0.06 points.

The event was won by current world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates from the US, who took their third ISU Grand Prix Final title with a season’s best of 131.68 points and 220.42 points overall.

They beat new French rivals Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry, who had been just one point behind in the Rhythm Dance, but suffered a fall on one element, which saw them score 126.69, remaining in second place at a total of 214.25 points.

The Grand Prix Final, which took place in Nagoya, Japan, is an elite competition between the top six skaters in each figure skating discipline following a series of Grand Prix events in autumn.

The event, the last worldwide competition before the Winter Olympic Games in Italy next year, is often regarded as a litmus test for the Olympic rankings, particularly in the ice dance field.

Gibson, from Prestwick and Fear were in fourth place after the rhythm dance, just a third of a point behind Gillies and Poirier, but set a season’s best of 126.26 points and pulled up from fourth place to take their second consecutive Grand Prix Final bronze medal with 208.81 points.

“We're so proud of our performance,” Fear said. “We wanted to really take in where we are here in Japan with a full crowd and doing a program that we are very proud of and staying focused but enjoying ourselves and I feel like that.”

“It was such a great moment to skate in such a beautiful arena filled with so many spectators,” said Gibson . “It's crazy and of course it's one of our favourite countries to skate in as well. It was such a pleasure.”

The pair’s free dance this season is set to a medley of Scottish music including The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, Proclaimers hit I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) and Auld Lang Syne.

The World Figure Skating Championships takes place in March, a month after the Olympics.

Before that, Gibson and Fear will compete on home ice at the European Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield in January.

The ice dance field has a seen a shake up this season with the return of French skater Cizeron with a new partner, Fournier Beaudry.

Cizeron, the 2022 Olympic champion, 2018 Olympic silver medallist and a five-time World champion with his former partner Gabriella Papadakis, teamed up with Fournier-Beaudry less than a year ago.

Veteran ice dancers Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri from Italy, who will be hoping to perform well at a home Winter Olympic Games in February, unexpectedly did not qualify for the Grand Prix Final after a disappointing Grand Prix season.