British ice dancers Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson are on course for a fourth European medal in a row after a brilliant performance in Friday’s rhythm dance.
The pair claimed bronze in Tallinn, Estonia last year after back-to-back silvers, and could upgrade to a first British European crown in 32 years on Saturday.
They earned a season’s best score of 85.47 with their routine to a Spice Girls medley - complete with a bedazzled Union Jack dress for Fear - leaving them second on the leaderboard ahead of the free dance.
The pair are famous for energetic, upbeat routines and produced another one to the delight of the home crowd in Sheffield, who cheered and clapped along to their near-flawless skate. The judging panel were similarly impressed, scoring them highly across all the mandatory elements.
French 2022 Olympic champion Guillaume Cizeron and his new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry - who only began skating together nine months ago but were the pre-event favourites - top the standings, 1.5 points ahead of Fear and Gibson.
The Brits were the penultimate pair to take to the ice, followed by reigning European champions Marco Fabbri and Charlene Guignard of Italy.
The pair have won the last three straight European titles but have work to do as they sit third, 0.99 points behind the Brits.
Fear and Gibson are among the contenders for a medal in the Milan-Cortina Olympics next month and have had a superb season, finishing third in December’s Grand Prix Final to cement their position at the top of the sport.
Last year they won Britain’s first medal in 41 years at the world championships, a bronze, following in the footsteps of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean, who won the last of their four world titles in 1984. They were the most recent British ice dancers to win a European crown, in 1994.
20-year-old Phebe Bekker and her 24-year-old partner James Hernandez also wowed the home crowd with their rhythm dance to a George Michael medley, with the younger British pair sitting in 11th place ahead of the free dance.
Their previous best at a European Championships came last year when they finished 13th.
