John and Sinead Kerr ended their Olympic Ice Dance medal hopes on Monday in Vancouver after finishing eighth in the competition table.

The brother and sister duo started the competition well after recording a personal best in the compulsory dance section but failed to move up from the number eight spot with their original and free dance routines.

After their initial performance at the Pacific Coliseum, the West Lothian pair were a manageable 6.74 points behind the initial front runners Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin from Russia.

However, this gap increased to 17.37 points following their country-western themed original dance and then again to 35.36 points following their final free dance to Linkin Park's Krwing, putting medal contention a long way off for the Scots.

Speaking after the competition, John Kerr said: "Obviously we always want to finish as high as we can and get in a medal position. It's disappointing because we wanted to be higher but so long as you give it your best you can't complain."
 
Confirming that the pair will contest the upcoming World Championships in Turin at the end of March, John refused to look ahead to the next Olympic Games in four years’ time.
 
He said: "We'll go to the World Championships then we'll decide what to do after that. We take things year after year. We'll have a little bit of a break after the worlds then have a talk about it afterwards."
 
Despite missing out on a medal, the siblings did set a series of season's bests throughout the competition, finishing with a total score of 186.01 but, as the competition moved into the final night, it became apparent that the medals were likely going to be fought out between the Canadians, Americans and the Russian’s.

The Russian pair Dominina and Shabalin scored 207.64 and the Americans Davis and White skated an impressive routine to The Phantom of the Opera for a total of 215.74.

However, it was the home competitors Virtue and Moir who clinched the gold with their performance scoring a top 221.57.
 
Speaking after their Olympic gold success, Moir insisted the pair had plenty more to come but was keen to play down similarities to British legends Torvill and Dean: "It's a very flattering comparison, but I don't think we have that kind of resume yet."
 
Moir said: "We were well trained and we were ready. But to have that moment with the home crowd and with each other, and to have all that hard work pay off, is just amazing."
 
Virtue added: "It wasn't right away that we thought we'd come to Vancouver and compete at the Olympic Games, let alone win a medal, and let alone go for the gold medal."

British number two pair Nick Buckland and Penny Coomes completed a promising first season on the senior circuit with a season's best total score of 143.61 to finish in 20th position.

The Kerrs' praised the performance of their potential future successors, who have made the tough decision to head to the United States to train alongside their Team GB team-mates.
 
Sinead Kerr said: "It's great to be in the position of being a mentor because we are in the last few years of our careers and we see a lot of potential.”