Canada's Les Suprmes successfully defend world synchronized skating title

Les Suprmes, from St-Lonard, Que., claimed its second straight gold medalat the ISU world synchronized skating championships on Saturday in Lake Placid, N.Y.

There were no changes tothe top four after Friday's short program asLes Suprmes tooktop spot with a season-best 240.98 points,four more than last year's winning performance.

The national bronze medallists entered the competitionwith two international medals this season, includinga victory at theSpring Cup in Italy.

"It's an honour to be on the podium today, we've been working super hard all season and improving our programs after every competition. It's a great reward after a long season," said captainJulia Bernardo. "We're going to take some time to relax and then in a few weeks we are going to head into our new season.

"We'll have some summer training camps and hope to work towards the next world championships."

National champions Nexxice finished fourth for the second consecutiveyear with 228.08 points.The team from Burlington, Ont., also collected two international podiums prior to worlds, highlighted by agold medal at theHevelius Cup in Poland.

The Helsinki Rockettes from Finland won silver with 239.56 and their compatriots Team Unique were third with 237.68.

There were 23 entries in total at the world championships with 535 skaters representing 19 nations at the 22ndedition of the event that started in 2000.