Gästebereich » n its last six league games in the defenc

SAITAMA, Japan -- Canadas Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won a pairs bronze medal at the world figure skating championships Thursday while Mao Asada of Japan set a world record to finish first in the womens short program. Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., were third with 210.84 points. Teammates Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto were fourth. Duhamel and Radford, who were seventh at the Sochi Olympics, also won bronze at last years world championships in London, Ont. "In some ways I think that this bronze medal feels even better than the last one," Radford said. "This season was just a lot more difficult and we had a lot more downs than we did last season. Especially after the Olympics, with our sort of disappointing result, we had to really pull ourselves together and to shift our point of view to just go out here and do it for ourselves. "And then to go out there and to actually do it and be back on the podium, its a huge thing for us. We are just so proud of ourselves." Germanys Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy won the gold, claiming their fifth title in the event they have dominated since 2008. Skating to Chopins Nocturne, Asada hit her trademark triple Axel at the start of her routine and completed all her remaining jumps to finish with 78.66 points, surpassing the previous record of 78.50 set by Yuna Kim at the Vancouver Olympics. "As the last competition of this season, I am happy to skate the best short program," said Asada, a two-time world champion. "My mission here is to perform both programs perfect so already half is done and tomorrow I want to focus on showing everything I have practised." Carolina Kostner of Italy was second with 77.24 points followed by Julia Lipnitskaia of Russia, who had 74.54 points. Kim, the defending champion, has retired and Olympic gold medallist Adelina Sotnikova of Russia isnt competing at the worlds. Kaetlyn Osmond of Marystown, N.L., was eighth and Gabrielle Daleman of Newmarket, Ont., was 14th. Skating to music from the "Alice in Wonderland" soundtrack, Duhamel fell on a triple Salchow in what was supposed to be a three-jump combination for the Canadian pairs team. It was an otherwise clean performance. "When you make a mistake as a figure skater, you need to put that mistake behind you as quickly as possible and continue skating as if you were skating cleanly. And weve been able to do that before, but at the Olympics after we made one mistake, things started to unravel a little bit," Duhamel said. "So we were really aware, as soon as I fell, that was not going to take away from our performance, that we were still going to go strong right until the end." Savchenko and Szolkowy were solid on all their elements in their program to "The Nutcracker," and earned 224.88 points to beat Russias Olympic silver medallists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, who had 215.92 points. "A fifth title is quite amazing," Szolkowy said. "We did and very good performance yesterday and were very good today." Savchenko and Szolkowy, who won the Olympic bronze in 2010 and 2014, have been together since August of 2003 and will split up after the world championships. "I can hardly believe it is over now. It feels very strange," Savchenko said. "To be honest, it felt like I was skating in an exhibition gala." Duhamel and Radford, in only their fourth year together, will continue competing next season. "I think that we have just learned a lot about where skating fits into our lives and the way that we approach our competitions. We spent the beginning of the season trying so hard to get every other point, and to really please the judges," Radford said. "Weve realized that if we go out and just skate the way that we want, we tend to skate better and we get better points. "Knowing that, we will take a very different approach going into next season. I think we will have a lot more streamlined programs, maybe a little bit simpler, just to create as much flow as possible and in turn we will perform more relaxed." Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, Sask., and Rudi Swiegers of Kipling, Sask., were 12th overall out of 16 pairs. In womens singles, Osmond pulled off all three of triple flip, triple toe and triple Lutz in the short program for the first time in competition. "I was really excited with the program," said Osmond. "It meant a lot to me to be able to do that here at worlds." Puma Scontate Italia . -- The San Francisco 49ers have re-signed cornerback Perrish Cox to a one-year contract. Scarpe Puma Scontate . -- Arizona coach Bruce Arians says there "were obviously very, very many problems" with the officiating in the Cardinals 24-21 loss at Philadelphia. http://www.pumascontate.it/. Van Slyke drove in a career-high four runs with two homers off struggling left-hander Tony Cingrani, and the Los Angeles Dodgers pulled away to a 6-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night, a rare comfortable win in their pitching-dominated series. Zalando Saldi Scarpe Puma . The day began ominously for the Rangers when star pitcher Yu Darvish was scratched from his scheduled start with stiffness in his neck. Fill-in Scott Baker gave up three hits over six innings and Chris Gimenez hit a tiebreaking two-out RBI single in the sixth off Phil Hughes. Puma Scarpe In Offerta .com) - St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko, Detroit Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk and Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury have been selected as the NHLs top players for last week.MANCHESTER, England - While Europes other big leagues take a breather over the festive period, clubs in the English Premier League begin a traditionally frenzied spell of fixtures that excites fans, exhausts players, tests managers, and potentially defines campaigns.A run of four games in nine or 10 days kicks off on Friday with a full program, with Chelsea looking to tame one of the surprise teams of the season to stay in first place and keep title rival Manchester City at arms length.West Ham arrives at Stamford Bridge in fourth place and as Londons No. 2 team this season, a side reborn under Sam Allardyce following summer orders from the hierarchy to play a more attractive brand of football.West Ham is certainly doing that — and impressive wins over City and Liverpool so far suggest a trip to Chelsea will hold no fear.Playing against Big Sam (Allardyce) is a hard job for us, we have to cope with it, said Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who thinks his team has the hardest festive fixtures of all of the top teams with games at Southampton and Tottenham to come.By beating Stoke on Monday, Chelsea restored a three-point lead over City and ensured it would be top on Christmas Day — a noteworthy milestone that has special significance for the Blues. The last three times Chelsea has led the league on Dec. 25, it has gone on to win the title.What we did in the past is not important, Mourinho said. Whats important is this season, and this season we are top of the league since day one and we are there because we are playing really well.In my opinion we are the best team.Here are some other things to look out for in the 18th round:___EXCITING WEST HAM: When West Ham last travelled to Chelsea, in January 2014, the visitors held on for 0-0 despite conceding 39 shots on their goal, and were accused by Mourinho of playing football from the 19th century because of their defensive tactics.That is unlikely to be the case this time round, with Allardyce recently speaking of his fantastic options up front with strikerss Andy Carroll, Diafro Sakho, and Enner Valencia, and attacking midfielder Stewart Downing looking sharp.ddddddddddddere playing great football, and any team that we play against is going to be worried about us, said Carroll, who has rediscovered his best form after injury. Weve got more than one attacking option - we play it on the floor, play it in the air, down the sides.West Ham hasnt been in a higher position in the top flight of English football at Christmas Day since 1985.NO STRIKERS FOR CITY: Man City manager Manuel Pellegrini is facing the unenviable task of negotiating the festive period without any strikers.Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic will again be missing when City plays away at West Bromwich Albion. City coped on Saturday against Crystal Palace, playing midfielder James Milner up front and winning 3-0.Pellegrini said Dzeko and Aguero are unlikely to return until the second part of January but Jovetic will be sooner.City has won its last six league games in the defence of its title.VAN GAALS TREAT: Louis van Gaal is breaking with tradition at Manchester United and giving his squad Christmas Day off.Players used to train on Christmas Day under long-time coach Alex Ferguson, and did so in David Moyes short tenure last season, too. Van Gaal is dealing with English footballs unique festive fixture schedule for the first time, and sees things differently.I believe in a total human being, so the environment is also important, the Dutchman said ahead of Uniteds home match against Newcastle. They are more pleased to be at home with their wives and children.LEICESTER WORRY: Since the Premier Leagues inception in 1992, only two teams have stayed up when bottom of the standings at Christmas. The omens, therefore, are not looking good for Leicester.Leicester is winless in 12 games, five points from safety, and its manager Nigel Pearson is one of the favourites to become the first Premier League coach to be fired this season.Leicester is at home to Tottenham on Friday. ' ' '