Kerrs: European Championships now out of the system

From Sportsbeat staff, in Vancouver 

 SINEAD and John Kerr have been back to the drawing board as they bid to finally step out of Torvill and Dean's shadow at Vancouver 2010 and the Scottish siblings believe they have found the blueprint for success.

SLIGHT RE-THINK: A fifth-place finish at the European Championships prompted the Kerrs to rethink their strategy but they insist they're ready for Vancouver (Getty Images)

A fifth-place finish for the ice dancing Kerrs at the European Championships last month was viewed as a disappointment - a measure of how far they have come - but also a sign of how far they still need to go to reach the podium in Vancouver.

2009 had seen the Kerrs blossom with European bronze on what has otherwise been a barren landscape of British figure skating ever since Torvill and Dean's third-place finish at Lillehammer 1994.

A seventh-place finish ensued at last year's World Championships, while a seventh consecutive British title in December saw the duo supersede Torvill and Dean's record of six in a row.

With figure skating's superpowers the USA and Russia set to be in attendance, the Kerrs must excel themselves in Vancouver and in truth Lady Luck will have to be grinning from ear to ear if they are to reach the podium.

Finishing fifth at the European Championships was therefore far from ideal preparation, but the duo are not ones to dwell on the past.

"It is not a disaster. It probably had to be a little bit closer to our best than it ended up being so we just have to move on," said 29-year-old John, two years Sinead's junior.

"I think we had to go back to the drawing board a little bit, just with possibly the order of the elements, to give ourselves the best possible chance to perform as cleanly as possible.

"I think as long as we can try and work on everything - try and get it cleaner -  then I think we are going to have a good opportunity to have a better chance and hopefully finish above some of the teams that finished above us [at the European Championships].

"We just have to forget about it, learn from the mistakes, move on and hopefully perform better at the big one."

The Kerrs turned heads with their originality at the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics, performing their free dance to the music of Scottish ceilidh band The Porridge Men.

That encouraging showing prompted an injection of funds from UK Sport - around £45,000 per year - and changed the Kerrs' horizons.

It allowed them to train full time in the USA, and to be coached by Evgeny Platov, coincidentally one half of the Russian partnership that beat Torvill and Dean to Olympic gold in 1994.

And far from toning their routines down for their second Olympic appearance, the Kerrs have decided to stick to what they know and will perform their free dance in Vancouver to Krwling by Linkin Park.

"I think we'd be cheating ourselves and cheating the audience if we were to change it, whether it was an Olympic year or not," said Sinead.

"We've always felt like we want to be skating to something we believe in and love."

"We wouldn't be being true to ourselves if we changed - it just wouldn't be us."