Toronto ice dancers Gilles, Poirier finish 2nd at Grand Prix in France

Canada's Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier were unable to overtake reigning world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France in Saturday's free dance, placing second at the ISU Grand Prix in Grenoble, France.

The Toronto ice dancers scored 121.81 points after amassing 81.35 in Friday's rhythm dance to music by Elton John.

''This week was a success,'' said Poirier. ''We didn't have our strongest rhythm dance, but we felt like the free was really a great improvement. Our scores were lower this week so we are going to have to really listen to the feedback and see what we can to do raised them.''

WATCH | Gilles, Poirier add to early-season success in France:

Papadakis and Cizeron claimed gold with 221.25 points, while Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin of Russia, who were third after the short program, rounded out the medal podium on Saturday with a total of 200.29.

Gilles and Poirier were victorious at their first two international events this season including Skate Canada International in Vancouver last month.

WATCH | Papadakis, Cizeron capture gold on home ice:

In the pairs event, fellow Canadians Vanessa James and Eric Radford just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish. The duo finished with 196.34 points for their best score since forming a partnership in April.

Russia claimed a 1-2 finish in the event with Aleksandra Boikova and Dmitrii Kozlovskii capturing gold (216.96) ahead of Artemeva and Mikhail Nazarychev (205.15).

American duo Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier finished third with 201.69 points.

WATCH | James, Radford finish 4th pairs event:

Canadian Keegan Messing finished sixth in the men's program with 253.06 points after producing a season-best free skate.

The 29-year-old said he is pleased with his progress this season.

''It was a fairly good event for me,'' said Messing. ''After Skate Canada my coach and I took a hard look at the long program and decided to switch things around a little bit… and you know what I think we have a system that will work for the rest of the season.''

WATCH | Messing skates to 6th-place finish in men's event:

Japan's Yuma Kagiyama captured gold in the men's event (286.41), while compatriot Shun Sato finished second with 264.99 points. Jason Brown of the U.S. won bronze with a total of 264.20.

In the women's event, reigning world champion Anna Shcherbakova led Russia to a 1-2 finish by capturing gold ahead of Alena Kostornaia. Japan's Wakaba Higuchi claimed bronze to prevent the Russian medal sweep.

WATCH | Shcherbakova finishes 1st in women's short program: