The basic novice competition at the 2013 French Cup brought fantastic results for Great Britain. Represented both by Nottingham’s Silhouettes and fledgling IW team Wight Crystals, the British came away with gold and silver.

Silhouettes, despite two falls, scored 28.78 to take first place. The Nottingham team demonstrated the continuing strength of the academy system and one can see the potential that the next generation of advanced novice and junior teams will realise.

Wight Crystals had a complete blip during official practice, which can only really be ascribed to lack of familiarity with their surroundings, what with the absence of extra practice ice for the team. They clearly left their hang-ups on this morning’s ice, skated as if nothing had gone wrong, and edged Belgian team Temptation out of second place by 0.06 points with a total score of 24.04.

With three Finnish teams setting scores of over 50 in the advanced novice, a podium place for Nottingham’s Shadows was a tough ask. Sixth to skate, the Shadows looked like clinching a worthy fourth with their score of 39.24, but were narrowly pipped to the post by Sunrise of Russia, who scored 39.88, and finished in fifth.

Link: www.frenchcup.fr