Bermuda’s Vanessa James enjoyed a golden moment at the ISU World Team Trophy competition in Fukuoka, Japan, taking the top honours in the pairs discipline.

James and partner Morgan Ciprès, represented France in the biennial competition against fellow nations Russia, the United States, Italy, Canada and Japan, in which in the individual scores from both singles and doubles disciplines make up the final standings.

On the first day of the doubles competition, the pair finished second in the short programme with a score of 73.48, finishing behind Russian pair Natalia Zabiiako and Alexander Enbert, who topped the scores with 75.80, and ahead of Italian pair Nicole Della Monica and Matteo Guarnise with 69.77.

James and Ciprès, who became the first French pair to win the European Championship in over 80 years, in January this year, saved their best for pairs free skate category, winning with an impressive score of 152.52, the second-highest score of the season, to finish ahead of the Russian pair and Canada’s Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro in second and third, respectively.

Despite the success of James and Ciprès, who had to settle for a fifth-place finish at the World Figure Skating Championships in Saitama, Japan, last month, the France team could only muster a fourth-place finish in the overall competition standings, as the US took the honours ahead of Japan and Russia.