Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri edge out Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson at European Championships

Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri fended off a stern challenge from Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson to be crowned ice dance European champions in Espoo.

Guignard and Fabbri had held a narrow lead over Fear and Gibson after the rhythm dance, with the two pairings well clear of the rest of the field on 85.53 and 84.12 points respectively.

And the Italian pairing produced a strong performance in the free skate to claim the title, winning the competition with an overall total of 210.44 points.

British duo Fear and Gibson took silver with a total of 207.89 points, while there was something for the home crowd to cheer for.

Juulia Turkkila and Matthias Versluis had sat in third after the opening dance and maintained that position to take home a bronze medal with a score of 198.21.

The women’s title had been won by Anastasia Gubanova earlier in the day, with the Georgian producing a stunning free skate to claim the title.

With Russian skaters – who have dominated this event in recent years – banned, there was an opportunity for a new champion to be crowned and Gubanova held a narrow lead after Thursday’s short programme, her score of 69.81 seeing her lead Belgium’s Loena Hendrickx by 1.96 points.

Kimmy Repond sat further back in third, with Olga Mikutina and Ekaterina Kurakova also in hunt for a medal.

In the end Gubanova in fact extended her lead to take gold, with a winning total of 199.91 seeing her claim the European title ahead of Hendrickx, who finished second on 193.48 points.

Repond claimed bronze with a total score of 192.51, with Kurakova just missing out in fourth and Mikutina finishing down in 12th after a poor free skate.

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