The British Figure Skating Championships take place in Sheffield this week, marking the 15th year the tournament has been held in the city.

From 25 to 30 November, senior and junior contestants from across the British Commonwealth will take part in singles and pairs events, hoping to be crowned British Champions in their respective categories at Ice Sheffield.

Lilah Fears and Lewis Gibson, GB’s first world medallists in 41 years, will be hoping to win a record-breaking eighth British ice dance title as they take on Sheffield’s own Lily Matthias and Henry Privett-Mendoza.

The rhythm dance, the first performance of the contest, took place today as the contestants hoped to start off their competition with a strong opener.

The proceedings opened with Nottingham’s Layla Karnes and Freddie Leggott, as their dance to This Is How We Do and Cotton Eyed Joe gave them a (opinion) to get the day’s premier contest underway.

The opening couple scored 46.12.

Soon after, Sheffield’s competitors Matthias and Privett-Mendoza took to the ice with a Spanish-salsa themed routine in the second show of the afternoon.

Matthias donned a bright orange salsa dress for the routine, which was confidently performed by the pair and scored 43.54.

The local pair seemed to feel that there was more to give, as they did not celebrate after their performance.

They finished the afternoon fifth in the table, in a competition field of seven.

Fears and Gibson opened with their rhythm dance to Wannabe by the Spice Girls, mirroring the theme of their routine.

The British pageantry theme saw Fears don a sparkling Spice Girls inspired leotard, and the GB colours popped against the ice as the pair performed some stunning lifts and tricks.

The defending champions scored almost twice the Sheffield pair, with 86.28.

After performing, Fears and Gibson seemed very happy, celebrating with their fans and giving back to the crowd with selfies and chats.

They denied an interview after competition, as they chose to focus on the final tomorrow afternoon, but the performance left them in a good place going into their free dance performance.

The free dance event is historically their most successful, and so the pair seem very well set to smash the record by the end of this competition.

Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez, with a score of 77.87, placed comfortably second after the defending champs.

Another couple from Fears’ and Gibson’s club Alexandra Palace finished the event with a routine score of 60.45 placing them third in the category and rounding out the podium.