TWO Scots yesterday earned places in Britain's team for the European

Figure Skating Championships in Copenhagen next month, but despite that,

neither was deemed good enough to go to the Winter Olympics in

Lillehammer.

Stephanie Main, the 17-year-old Murrayfield skater who captured a

shock UK title 24 hours earlier at Basingstoke, was named along with

Ayrshire's John Martin for the European event in Denmark from January 18

to 23.

Martin has been runner-up for the UK title four times -- on each

occasion to Welshman Steve Cousins, who gets the Olympic vote.

The former UK champion, Charlene Von Saher, who has lived most of her

life in New York and was forced out of the Basingstoke finals through

illness, was preferred to Main for the women's figures at the Winter

Games in Norway, from February 12 to 27.

The selectors' reason for dividing the spoils is that Main deserves

some recognition after her outstanding performance, but the 19-year-old

Wimbledon-born Von Saher has far more experience and should be selected

for the more important event.

This may not satisfy Von Saher, who, until feeling sick and feverish

on Thursday night, was odds-on favourite to retain her British title and

expected to be chosen for both events. She could also point out that

Main finished a disappointing twenty-fourth in the World Junior

championships in Colorado Springs last week.

Yet the young Scot shook off jet lag -- she returned from the United

States only on Monday -- as well as the challenge of better known rivals

Natalia Gorbenko-Risk and Emma Warmington to take the British

championship in superb style.

Cousins, UK men's champion for the fifth successive year, is the only

male chosen for Lillehammer. Teams:

EUROPEAN: Men's Individual --

S Cousins (Deeside) and J Martin (Kyle

& East Kilbride). Women's Individual -- S Main (Murrayfield and

Sunderland). Pairs -- D Mednick and J Briggs (Ashfield).

OLYMPICS: Men's Individual -- Cousins. Women's Individual -- C Von

Saher (Queen's). Pairs -- No qualifiers.