Bermudian figure skater Vanessa James and her partner Morgan Cipres finished in sixth place after yesterday’s free skate at the European Championships in Sheffield, England.James, who attended Mount St Agnes and whose father Kevin is from Bermuda, now competes for France after becoming a citizen of that country in 2009.Going into yesterday’s free skate, James and Cipres were in eighth place following the short programme where they scored 51.81 points.Following the free skate the duo ended up with a total of 151.93 points.The top three places were taken by Russian pairs,Winning the gold was Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov with 210.45 points. Silver was taken by Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov with 193.79 points while the bronze medal was won by Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov with 171.81 points.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 last year’s Master’s de Patinage which is an annual competition held in Orléans, France. And then in December James and Cipres won 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 2014 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.James and Cipres will be hoping for a fine performance in March this year when the World Championships are staged in Nice, France from March 26 to April 1.In Sheffield this week they beat out the second French team of Daria Popova and Bruno Massot who won the French National Championships in December.