Fear and Gibson miss out on medal after penalty

Great Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson agonisingly missed out on an ice dance bronze medal at the World Figure Skating Championships after being deducted two points.

Fear and Gibson were third after the rhythm dance and looked to have secured bronze in Saturday's free dance but were penalised for an "illegal element" by the judges.

It meant they finished fourth, 0.22 of a point behind American pair Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, in Prague.

The reason for the penalty was not provided but it is reportedly because of the height of an overhead lift during their routine., external

Olympic champions Guillaume Cizeron and Laurence Fournier Beaudry of France won gold, with 230.81 points. They are the fourth pair to win Olympic, world and European titles in the same season.

They finished 19.29 points ahead of the field, which is the biggest winning margin in worlds history.

Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who took bronze at Milan-Cortina 2026 won the silver medal, ahead of Zingas and Kolesnik, who finished on 209.20 points, with Fear and Gibson ending on 208.98.

The British pair, who won bronze at last year's World Championships, missed out on a medal at the Winter Olympics last month because of a costly mistake in their free dance routine.

Earlier, US star Ilia Malinin won a third straight men's gold as he bounced back from missing out on an Olympic medal last month when he fell twice in the free skate.