Vanessa James and partner Yannick Bonheur finished in seventh place in the pairs at the ISU European Figure Skating Championships this week in Tallinn, Estonia.

James, who attended Mount St. Agnes as a young girl and who has a Bermudian father, Kevin, now skates for France and the pair will compete next month at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

The pairs event in Estonia was won by Russia’s Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov who upset world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy.

The Russians trailed the Germans by 0.2 points after the short programme, but they soared ahead with an exuberant free skate programme to waltzes, including the Blue Danube. They were solid technically, their only major flaw coming when Yuko stepped out of a triple toe loop.

Savchenko and Szolkowy, who had won the last three European titles, took the silver medal. Russia’s Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov took bronze.

James and Bonheur, the current French champions, opened their programme to Romeo and Juliet with strong side-by-side triple Salchows, a high triple twist, and solid throw triple Salchow, but later James slipped on the edge of the death spiral entry and Bonheur fell out of a double Axel landing.

They then achieved a level four only on their flying spin and one of the lifts, however, they still managed to improve their personal best in the long and overall (151.27 points) to finish seventh.

James said: “We did not exactly fulfill our goals for this competition because we wanted to be in top five. We are a little bit disappointed, because I made a silly mistake on the ice. But I did my hard elements afterwards, and it is the first time it has happened, so I’m really proud of myself because I did all the jumps and throw. I think it was a great experience for us. We love the crowd and we have a lot of supporters here.”

James had also represented Great Britain before partnering Bonheur in France two years’ ago. She became a French citizen last month.

James was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada and lived in Bermuda until aged 10 when her family moved to Virginia.

Her twin sister, Melyssa James, is also a figure skater while her Bermudian cousin is 13-year-old tennis player Tyler Smith who has recently won championships throughout the Caribbean.

More than 120 athletes from 38 countries were in Estonia this week competing in the European Championships.