A South Ayrshire skater has achieved a top 10 result at this year's Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Prestwick-born Lewis Gibson and partner Lilah Fear were competing in the Ice Dance competition in the early hours of this morning (Monday).

The pair scored 76.45 in the Rhythm Dance section and 115.19 in the Free Dance, giving them a combined score of 191.64.

They were 34 points behind the French duo of Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron who scored a combined score of 226.98 to take the gold.

"This whole experience was so much fun and everything we wanted, it was the feeling we'd been visualising up to this point. It's hard to not look at the scores but we are just trying to feel anchored to this moment," said Fear.

She added: "It's hard to compare competition to competition but the performance was definitely better than our last skate at the Europeans."

Gibson and Fear have been together for six years - which in ice dance terms is not long, some of their opponents spending more than a decade forming their symbiotic partnerships.

They compete again at the World Championships in Montpellier next month, where they will look to improve on their seventh place last year. They will then return to their Montreal training base, where they work with Romain Haguenauer, who guided Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir to three world and two Olympic titles.

“Maturity is a big part of the sport, we've been together six years which sounds a long time but it's not in ice dancing terms. We want to keep jumping up the rankings,” said Gibson.

"I feel such confidence leaving this experience, we completed two really good performances at the Olympics. It can be daunting but knowing we can do it, just fills us with optimism.

"Knowing we've done it well is the biggest thing, we didn't shy away from the experience, we totally embraced it.

"We're excited to go and train with everyone on the team at Montreal. There will be so much growth for everyone over the next four years. A new Olympic quad brings such excitement.”

Meanwhile, both skaters insist entertainment will always come first as they look to rise up the world’s top 10.

They were contacted by American glam rock band Kiss on social media after using 'I Was Made For Loving You' in a medley of tunes for their short programme.

While rivals used a succession of mournful piano medleys for their free skate, Gibson and Fear turned up the tempo and turned on the West End style with music from The Lion King, delighting the small crowd allowed to watch due to pandemic restrictions.

"Our music choice is about us, it's about being uplifting and being us and choosing music that shows the joy we feel on the ice. We are drawn to up tempo and exciting pieces of music, we search for them," added Fear.

"It was a real pinch me moment they got in touch. We were hoping they were going to see our performance because we are such huge fans.

"They've inspired us as performers, their performance quality, talk about going all out and attacking what you are doing, that's what any athlete wants to do."

You can watch all the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 live on discovery+, Eurosport and Eurosport app.