Bermudian figure skater Vanessa James and her partner Morgan Cipres finished fourth at the 2013 ISU European Figure Skating Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.James and Cipres, representing France, were among 15 couples competing in yesterday’s Pairs final that was won by Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov of Russia with 212.45 points. The French earned 178.81 points.On Wednesday, James and Cipres picked up 59.27 points, a new season’s best, for their performance to Rhumba d’Amour and upbeat music by Safri Duo in the Pairs Short Programme.Despite struggling with their triple twist when Cipres caught James too late causing her to stumble, James said was happy with their performance.“We’re really happy with the skate,” said James. “When we started we were a little bit nervous, and so the twist was almost too high, but we continued to skate well after that mistake, so we’re really pleased. It’s good to start out that strong at Europeans.”James, daughter of Kevin and June James, added: “Before, we let things pass and if something wasn’t working so well, we’d move onto the next thing. Now, our coach doesn’t let anything go. We’ve changed our whole way of thinking.”James, who competed at the Vancouver Olympics with former partner Yannick Bonheur after the duo won the 2010 French National Championships, first met singles skater Cipres in September 2010 and spent the season just training.The two then started competing and won the 2011 Master’s de Patinage which is an annual competition held in Orléans, France before claiming the silver medal at the French National Championships.James and Cipres currently train at Bercy, France with coach Jean-Roland Racle and hope to represent France at the next year’s Winter Olympics. Before becoming a French citizen, James, who is also the cousin of top Bermuda tennis player Tyler Smith, was the former British National Champion (2006) in singles and in 2007 won the silver medal. She switched to pairs skating in 2007 and teamed up with Yannick Bonheur to compete for France.Following the Vancouver Olympics the pair decided to split. James twin sister, Melyssa James, is also a figure skater.