FIGURE SKATING: Australian ice dancing pair Danielle O’Brien and Greg Merriman have produced a season’s best free dance to finish seventh at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Taipei.

The event, which got underway on Wednesday, did not start out as planned for the duo from Sydney. In the short dance, Merriman showed uncharacteristic signs of nerves which resulted in a fall part way through the program. Despite having some good components that would have seen them finish in the top five, this error meant they ended the short dance in 10th place.

Testament to their determination, O’Brien and Merriman put the result behind them and focused on improving in their free dance, which they did to the tune of 77.28 points, a season’s best result.

“Of course the fall in the short dance wasn't part of our plan however I am really happy with how we bounced back in the free dance and were able to put the short dance behind us and move up the three places to seventh,” O’Brien said.

“We have been working hard on improving our components and quality of our technical elements and this showed in the improvement of our grade of execution from other events, particularly in the free dance.”

The strong free dance result brought the pair into overall seventh place with a final score of 121.44.

The pair now head back to Detroit with what O’Brien described as “the motivation to work and improve on our short dance to put ourselves in the best possible position for the free dance event in Sochi.”

“This event was very important in our lead up to Sochi, Merriman added. “It has been 12 months since we have competed on such a large stage in a big arena and the event gave us the opportunity to shake out any nerves and find our bearings in the larger environment compared to the familiarity of our day to day training rink.”

In the other events, Brendan Kerry placed 18th in the short program of the men’s individual with a score of 59.00. The score was well below the 19-year-old’s personal best.

“I was happy with the triple axel, as it had been all over the place in practice, but I'm annoyed that I did some silly mistakes by popping the triple loop and the second jump in my combo," Kerry said.

"However, I was happy with my overall skating and the spins were good."

In the free program, Kerry finished 20th with a score of 104.37. The free score put Kerry in overall 20th position, with a total score of 163.37.

Kerry was nervous going into the Four Continents competition and had the added pressure of competing in new skates.

Kerry's skates broek down two weeks ago so he is now in new ones and has used the event in Taipei to wear them in.

"Between now and the Olympics I want to get more comfortable in my skates," Kerry said. "I want to be able to get out and lay down a clean program."

Australia’s fourth Sochi Olympian, Brooklee Han, was sitting in 14th position after her short program which she earned 52.55 for.

Han maintained her ranking after the free, earning 97.62 for an overall score of 150.17.

All in all I think Four Continents was a great springboard for me towards the Olympics," the 18-year-old skater said.

"My programs had minor mistakes, a turn out in one jumps in my short program and three in my free. It was a great prep for Sochi and has given me the confidence I need to feel prepared for such a great event as the Olympics.

My fitness level felt really good so now I can look forward to going home to fine-tune and polish up my programs so they are just right."

Follow the live results here: http://www.isuresults.com/results/fc2014/index.htm