World champion Shcherbakova edges ahead of teammate Kostornaia at French Grand Prix; Papadakis/Cizeron lead dance

Reigning world champion figure skater Anna Shcherbakova is on the cusp of winning her second consecutive Grand Prix event.

The 17-year-old, debuting a new short program, led a Russian sweep of the top three spots in women's singles at the Internationaux de France on Friday (19 November) in Grenoble, edging out training mate Alena Kostornaia, the 2020 European champion, 77.94 to 76.44.

Another Russian, Kseniia Sinitsyna, skated first, but her score held up through 12 skaters to land in the top three ahead of Saturday's (20 Nov.) free skate.

Sinitsyna registered a 69.89 while the Republic of Korea's Park Yeonjeong is fourth with a 67.00 and American Karen Chen is in fifth with a 64.67.

The Internationaux de France is the fifth of six scheduled International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix events, with Rostelecom Cup in Sochi, Russia, set to conclude the Series next weekend (26-27 Nov.)

Shcherbakova showed no signs of the trouble that had tripped her up at the Gran Premio d'Italia two weeks ago, when she turned her planned triple Lutz-triple loop combination into a triple-double, finishing third in the short program. She chalked the mistake up to a mental blip, and on Friday was sterling on a different combination, her triple Lutz-triple toe earning 12.54 points, the most of any woman in the short.

Shchberbakova looks primed to book her spot in next month's Grand Prix Final in Osaka, where the Grand Prix's top six skaters and teams from each discipline will compete.

In the ice dance, four-time world champions and French home hopes Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron are in the lead after the rhythm dance, their 89.08 less than point shy of their world record score of 90.03 from NHK Trophy in 2019. More on the dance below.

MORE: What to know for this weekend's Internationaux de France

Shcherbakova shines with new short program

Two weeks after she made her Grand Prix debut this season in Torino, Shcherbakova was back on the ice - only this time with a brand-new short program.

Her "Songs of a Distant Earth" short was switched out for "Dangerous Affairs," a move in the Olympic season that Shcherbakova was feeling anxious about before getting on the ice Friday.

"Today I was a little bit nervous about my new program because it was the first time I skated in competition so I was really nervous about my jumps, about my whole program, and now we know there are some small things that we need to work on, but today that's okay for me" she told reporters.

"We decided to change the short program after the previous Grand Prix," Shcherbakova went on. "It was the idea of [choreographer] Daniil Gleikhengauz: He suggested the music and it was all his idea. There was not a lot of time and my goal here was to show what we worked on and what we did and hopefully next time I will be more confident in my program because here I was completely focused on my skating."

She still topped both the technical and program component scores, her 41.60 in components just above Kostornaia's 41.18 for her "New York, New York" short. That program was also switched out from an earlier one being used this season as skaters attempt to find the right recipe for Beijing 2022 qualification.

Kostornaia said she opted not to try the triple Axel, instead safely landing a double.

"My coach and me decided to change [to "New York, New York"] because I can feel this program and I think this is the best program that I did before," she said. "I think this program is more fun, more clear; it's easier to understand about what I'm skating. ... Everything was good but the step sequence. Of course there is a room for improvement, but as for my current content, I think I did the best I could and I can be only happy about it."

Struggles for U.S. women; Higuchi misses triple Axel

All eyes were on Higuchi Wakaba of Japan a week after she scored a 79.73 at the ISU Challenger Cup of Austria event, hitting her patented triple Axel in that program to boost her score.

There was no such triple on Friday, the 20-year-old popping the jump into a single. She's in sixth with a 63.87.

"In Austria, I had triple Axel for the short program and was a success and so I felt confident in putting into the short," she explained. "It was risky, but in Austria I decided to take on the challenge. ... I am not confident about making up for my mistakes tomorrow, but I know I have no choice but to do my best tomorrow. I was laughing at myself for the single Axel... I am trying not to over think."

PyeongChang 2018 Olympian Chen was the top among the three U.S. women, as Mariah Bell fell on her triple flip-triple toe combination and is in 10th place with a 60.81. Starr Andrews, meanwhile, stopped her program mid-music due to injury. She has withdrawn from the competition.

"Obviously I had the fall on the combo but the score seems incredibly low for everything else I did so I'll have to go back and look and see where I lost other points," noted Bell, who was sixth in the program component marks. "I had to switch programs a couple months ago after advice from judges and this is my first time competing this season so I'm sure it'll get better. ... I'm looking forward to improving what I've done in here the long tomorrow and I have Russia next week and everything moving forward."

Ice dance: Papadakis/ Cizeron safely ahead of Gilles/ Poirier

After winning at their first Grand Prix in nearly two years earlier this month, Papadakis and Cizeron, the 2018 Olympic silver medallists, were strong again in their John Legend medley rhythm dance, their score just south of the best ever.

Having missed the entire 2020-21 season, the French were happy to be back competing at home in an international event.

"It was nice being in Grenoble for the Grand Prix, with our French audience, it was very nice to feel that support," said Papadakis, 26. "We did a very good performance, we're very happy with what we did, and we're very happy with the scores."

The French duo could have an uphill climb in Beijing having missed last season, their world ranking dropping to No.11.

"I think we might not be in the last group for the Olympics - our coach told us that - but I don't think it plays such a big role," Papadakis explained. "It is what it is and we have that ranking because we didn't do any competitions last year but it was the best thing for us. We'll work around that and I don't think it'll play a big role."

2021 world bronze medallists Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are second with a 81.35, while Russia's Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin are third at 79.89.

"It's nice to be back here, the last time we were here in Grenoble [in 2018] we had a disappointing finish and failed to qualify for the Final, so we're definitely here on a mission this week," said Poirier, he and Gilles having won at Skate Canada in their first Grand Prix. "This is our second event with an audience since the pandemic began and it's so nice to be able to perform for people. ... I think this was not our strongest performance especially in the first half of the dance, but I think the second half of the dance really picked up well."

Stepanova felt confident in their skate, though the 79.89 was lower than the 81.47 they received at the Italian Grand Prix.

"Today we are happy with our performance; we feel like we skated better than we did in Italy at our first Grand Prix but we don't quite understand yet how our score was a point lower than Italy," Stepanova noted. "But we are happy with how we skated."