Figure Skating – ROUEN, France – Les Suprêmes from St-Léonard, Que., still have sights on the podium after placing fifth in Friday’s short program at the French Cup synchronized skating competition.

Less than three points separate the top-five.

Paradise from Russia is first at 84.99 followed by three teams from Finland: the Helsinki Rockettes are second at 84.74, Team Unique third at 84.53 and Marigold Ice Unity fourth at 83.75.

Les Suprêmes earned 82.48 which was almost fourth points better than their short program score last week in a fourth place finish in Sweden.

Skating for Les Suprêmes are  Jessica Allaire, Rebecca Allaire, Karianne Bégin, Julia Bernardo, Laurie Désilets. Olivia Di Giandomenico, Molly Katherine Farber, Lisanne Foley, Laurie Raphaelle Gauthier, Peter Gerome, Giulia Hart-Lewis, Sora Hatano, Grace Carol LeTouzel, Dana Malowany, Agathe Sigrid Merlier, Andréanne Paradis, Martha Maria Pietrasik, Alessia Malissa Pollletta, Florene Poulin and Édouard Tremblay.

‘’It felt just so good, exactly like we did it at home,’’ said Malowany, the team captain. ‘’When we stepped on the ice we had such confidence and we improved a lot from last week which was our goal.’’

In junior competition, Dream Edges from Finland are first, Team Junost of Russia second and Skyliners from the U.S. third.

Gold Ice Juniors from Brampton, Ont., in its international debut, is sixth out of 13 entries.

Skating for Gold Ice are: Nethma Aluthge, Allison Brandt, Evangeline Liao, Lora Puliz, Emiko Arshad, Reeya Chahal, Anna Drob, Denika Ellis Dawson, Gabrielle Emery, Jasmine Gagnon, Rachel Humphrey, Alessia Moreno, Marissa Nadeau, Isabelle Pawlowski, Halle Priester, Olivia Tworzyanski, Emily Vanderberg and Brynn Wilkinson.

‘’We felt really great about the skate today,’’ said Gagnon. ‘’We were confident and comfortable and coming off the ice everyone was super happy. We really pushed through and worked together as a team.’’

The free skates are on Saturday.

Full results: https://www.frenchcup.fr/en/event-info/results/2019/