Wight Jewels are back home on the Island after competing in the French Cup in Rouen, finishing a long period away with a gusty Channel crossing.

The Jewels finished 10th overall with a total score of 68.57, 18.71 points behind Black Diam’s of France in 9th. Although the eventful short programme was a set-back, with a score of 19.41, the Jewels skated confidently in the long with no incidents for 49.16 points.

There’s a lot of positive news about these results. First, the long programme scored more than the old long programme did at the world championships in Gothenburg last year. This in front of a full-strength panel of international judges, and also working to programme requirements that in theory would produce lower scores than last year. In short, the long programme is an improvement.

Second, compared with Black Diam’s, Wight Jewels’ marks dropped less than the results obtained by the two teams in the French Masters in November 2010. At the masters, Wight Jewels scored 81.96 and Black Diam’s 112.0; at the French Cup, the scores respectively were  68.57 against 87.28, drops of 16.3% and 22.1% respectively. Without the falls in the short, Wight Jewels’ marks would have dropped less still (marks tend to fall at full ISU events because the teams are under the scrutiny of a bigger panel of international judges). Again this all points to potentially better results in the worlds in March.

So with clean programmes in the forthcoming Junior World Challenge Cup in Neuchatel, Wight Jewels at least have the potential to improve on last year’s ranking.

Congratulations to winners Team Braemar of the USA, and Finnish teams Musketeers and Ice Steps, who were second and third respectively.

Results are summarised at the official French Cup site: www.frenchcup.fr