Soucisse And Firus 19th At Sheffield Euros

Irish ice dancers Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus have finished in 19th place at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships earlier this evening in Sheffield.

In yesterday’s Rhythm Dance, Soucisse and Firus had a mishap on their opening sequential twizzle sequence that saw them on 62.71 points, just under six points off their season best for the segment qualifying 18th out of 20 teams that advanced. The duo performed third in the Free Dance and from the first strains of Bill Whelan’s iconic “Riverdance” score they had the Utilita Arena in the palm of their hands. After executing most of their difficult technical elements, Soucisse tumbled at the beginning of the choreographic step sequence. The couple closed out the routine to rapturous applause. They received a free dance score of 88.28 points for a total of 150.99 points and dropped one place to finish 19th overall.

“Up until the last 45 seconds, it felt great,” Soucisse said. “It’s not a mistake we make often. I feel better telling myself this happened because I gave it all. I gave everything I had. The crowd were amazing.”

“They were with us from the beginning,” Firus said. “It definitely helped us get all the way till the end. Maybe we let it envelop us too much towards the end, but we had a really good time and really enjoyed it.”