Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson ended a four-decade wait for a British world figure skating medal by winning an emotional ice dance bronze at the World Championships in Boston.
No British skaters had stood on a world podium since 1984, when the legendary Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won their fourth and final ice dance title in Ottawa.
And it was personal redemption for Fear and Gibson, who finished fourth at the previous two World Championships and endured a nervy wait after their free dance on Saturday to see if it would be enough for an elusive medal.
“I can’t even describe my feelings,” Fear said afterwards. “I’m still shaking. It’s a dream come true, and I’m kind of in disbelief. But I’m so grateful for the results.”
Two-time defending champions and home favourites Madison Chock and Evan Bates became the first Americans to win a hat-trick of titles with a season-best score of 222.06.
The pair had led after a dazzling rhythm dance on Friday and produced another technically superb performance in front of a bouncing home crowd to seal a third straight gold, a feat which was last achieved by the Russian duo of Oksana Grishuk and Evgeni Platov from 1994-97.
Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier took silver for a second year in succession with a score of 216.54, while Fear and Gibson’s 123.25 on the night – 207.11 across the rhythm and free dances – was enough for bronze by just 0.65 points over the European champions and two-time world medallists, Italian duo Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri.
The British team were third after an excellent performance in the rhythm dance to a Chic and Stevie Wonder medley in which they scored 83.86, a career high in a world championship segment.
But they were just 0.82 points clear of the Italian team and only narrowly edged them out of the podium spots with their fan-favourite Beyonce medley, which placed sixth on the night but was enough combined with their rhythm dance score for an historic medal.
The pair have enjoyed a brilliant season, winning Britain’s first-ever medal at the Grand Prix final and recently standing on the podium at the European Championships for the third straight year.
With the World Championships a major qualifying competition for next year’s Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Fear and Gibson can now look ahead to ending another British medal drought with a first medal at the Games since Torvill and Dean’s bronze on their comeback at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
Another British pair, Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez, finished 17th in Boston in just their second appearance at Worlds.
And there were more medals in a spectacular haul for the host nation as 19-year-old Alysa Liu won America’s first women’s world gold in 19 years, three years after retiring from the sport, and the peerless ‘quad god’ Ilia Malinin won a second straight men’s world title with a record-equalling six quadruple jumps.
