Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland progress to ice dance final day at Winter Olympics
Last Updated: 20/02/18 5:43pm
Great Britain’s Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland secured safe passage to the final day of the ice dance competition at the Winter Olympics.
The pair scored 68.36 from their short dance routine at the Gangneung Ice Arena which saw them finish 10th with the top 20 moving on to Tuesday's free dance.
Coomes, whose career was threatened by a serious injury which saw her smash her kneecap in eight places following a fall in training in 2016, and Buckland are competing in their third Winter Olympics.
Christopher Dean, who won gold and bronze at the 1984 and 1994 Olympic Games with Jayne Torvill in Sarajevo and Lillehammer respectively, helped to choreograph the duo's routine.
"It felt amazing being out there after everything we've been through," said Coomes.
"It was a very special and powerful moment. When something you love so much goes, it's the most amazing feeling in the world to have it back."
Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, competing in their final Olympics, topped the standings after they played an integral role in helping secure their country team gold last week and they are looking to secure a fifth Olympic medal in their already illustrious careers.
The medals will go to the three teams with the highest cumulative scores over the two dances from the competition with Tuesday's free dance scheduled to begin at 01:00 GMT.
Meanwhile, there was mixed news for Team GB, who have already secured a record-equalling four medals in Pyeongchang, at the Phoenix Snow Park - two days after Izzy Atkin won Great Britain's first Winter Olympics medal on skis with bronze in the slopestyle final.
Rowan Cheshire, 22, finished in ninth place after her opening two qualification runs to reach Tuesday's ski halfpipe final but Molly Summerhayes scored a 66.00 to finish 17th - despite putting down a career-best total.
Cheshire, who missed out on Sochi through injury four years ago, is making her Winter Olympics bow and her opening run score of 74.00 proved good enough for a position in the top-12 qualifiers with Canada's Cassie Sharpe topping the qualifying standings.
Aimee Fuller, 17th in the women's snowboard slopestyle event, fell on both her runs and finished 25th out of 26 competitors in the snowboard's Big Air with a best score of 25.00 as Austria's Anna Gasser progressed to Friday's final with an impressive 98.00 world record mark - two short of a perfect score.
