Scotland's ice-dance champions, Sinead and John Kerr, will launch their new season in Finland next week as they strive for the same level of excellence which produced so much success for their counterparts at the Beijing Olympics.

The couple have spent most of the summer in the United States, working with two former world champions, Evgeny Platov and Maia Usova, the latter of whom was one half of the duo which finished above Jayne Torvill and Chris Dean at the 1994 Winter Games. The Kerrs realise they will have to pursue the same standards to achieve their ambition of gaining a podium place at the 2010 Olympics.

As has been the case with the Scots throughout a career in which they have gained greater support from crowds throughout the world than international judges, the siblings are continuing to eschew convention and will unveil their new free dance routine to the song Ruled By Secrecy, by the contemporary band, Muse, in Finland next weekend, before competing in the more prestigious Skate America event from October 23-26.

"It is a bit of a daring choice, but, strangely enough, I think other couples are starting to pick up on the theme, because there have been some interesting choices of music this year," said John, who has always championed a move away from Bolero-style classical dancing in favour of athleticism, excitement and adventurousness.

"We want to tune up before the Grand Prix meeting in the US and, if we win in Finland, it would actually see us rise to No.6 in the ISU world rankings, which would be our highest-ever placing on the list, so there are no shortage of incentives for us in the months ahead.

"Preparations for the new season have gone well and it has been terrific to have Maia working with us, as well as Evgeny. We have learned a lot from her and there is not a lot she doesn't know about ice dance, as a former world champion in 1993 and two-time Olympic medallist. We know that we have to keep chasing higher scores, but we have chosen original dance a 1940s theme and free dance routines which we think are great to do and will highlight a lot of our strengths as performers."

In the past couple of seasons, the Kerrs have taken significant strides and climbed above the 170-point mark, but know they will have to strive for a 200-plus score in the 2008-09 campaign. The next month may tell us whether they can rise to that challenge.