Kerrs bring curtain down on season with career best fifth

WHETHER it was the last dance of their career or not, Sinead and John Kerr brought the curtain down on their season with a career best finish of fifth at the World Figure Skating Championships in Turin.

FINEST PERFORMANCE: Sinead and John Kerr complete a hat-trick of season's bests to finish a career best fifth at the World Championships in Turin (Getty Images)

The Scottish siblings have well and truly risen to the occasion in Italy with season's bests in both the compulsory dance and original dance.

Having disappointed to finish fifth in January's European Championships and eighth in their second Winter Olympics in Vancouver last month, the Kerrs have been determined to make amends.

And they continued their cathartic performance into the free dance, collecting their third season's best of the week with a score of 93.32 to finish fifth overall.

The British couple are crowd favourites wherever they go and it was fitting that they danced last, finishing off a competition which saw Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir once again raise the bar of competitive ice dancing to add the world title to their Olympic crown.

Less than five points away from a medal ahead of the free dance, the British couple maintained slim hopes of bronze in Italy.

And while their overall score of 189.11 wasn't enough to go above Italy's Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali or France's Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat,  the Scottish duo looked anything but disappointed in the kiss and cry.

In truth, the Kerrs' free dance wasn't as crisp as their first two routines, with less fluidity in the twizzles and lifts.

But there were still encouraging signs and a season's best score suggests the British couple can improve again should they choose to carry on for another season.

Christina Chitwood and Mark Hanretty showed they were ready to battle with national runners-up Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland for British supremacy with a 23rd place in Turin.

But both couples have plenty to improve before they can match the Kerrs on the ice and should the Scottish couple step down, they would certainly leave large skates to fill.