Soucisse and Firus edged off podium in ice dancing at Finlandia Trophy

ESPOO, Finland – Carolane Soucisse of Chateauguay, Que., and Shane Firus of North Vancouver missed a berth on the podium by three points on Sunday to conclude the Finlandia Trophy figure skating competition.

Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia won the gold with 200.78 points. Olivia Smart and Adrian Diaz of Spain were second at 180.07 and Marie-Jade Lauriault and Romain Le Gac of France were third at 175.46.

Soucisse and Firus, were third after the short dance and delivered the fifth best free dance to drop a notch and finished at 172.27.

‘’Overall it was a step in the right direction,’’ said Firus. ‘’We upped our technical especially in the short. There were a couple of mistakes in the free but the performance level was still high.’’

In women’s competition, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva of Russia won the gold with Elizabet Tursynbaeva of Kazakhstan second and Viveca Lindfors of Finland third.
Véronik Mallet of Sept-Iles, Que., in her first international event since 2016, climbed from seventh to sixth with the fifth best free skate.

‘’It feels good to get back into international competition,’’ said Mallet, who has been battling a painful foot injury since October 2016. ‘’I felt good about both programs, I was confident and that really helped.’’

Canada ends the competition with one silver medal earned on Saturday by Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Michael Marinaro of Sarnia, Ont., in pairs.

Full results:CS Finlandia Trophy Espoo 2018