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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." Orioles Jerseys China .com) - The Columbus Blue Jackets rewarded starting goaltender and pending restricted free agent Sergei Bobrovsky with a four-year contract extension on Friday. Wholesale Orioles Jerseys .C. -- The Charlotte Bobcats said head coach Steve Clifford underwent a successful procedure Friday to have two stents placed in his heart. https://www.cheaporioles.com/ .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. Baltimore Orioles Shirts .I shared with him how much I appreciated all he had done for us, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said of that Thursday night farewell. Baltimore Orioles Store . - A pitch clock will be used this season during minor league games at Triple-A and Double-A, but it has been ruled out for the major leagues this year.BOSTON -- Torey Krug became an instant favourite in Boston when he was called up during last years playoffs and had four goals in the first five NHL post-season games of his career. After a quick start this season, with six goals in about a month, the 22-year-old defenceman slowed down and was scoreless for 11 straight games. In the first period Saturday against Winnipeg, he had a giveaway in the Bruins zone that helped the Jets take a 1-0 lead. "Thats frustrating," said Krug, who assisted on the tying goal and then scored twice to lead Boston to a 4-1 victory. "Its all about putting it into the past and forgetting about it." Daniel Paille also scored for Boston, and Tuukka Rask made 36 saves for the Bruins before they embark on a three-game California trip. Dustin Byfuglien scored and Ondrej Pavelec stopped 25 shots for Winnipeg. The Jets have lost two in a row since bringing a three-game winning streak into the new year. Byfuglien gave the Jets the lead midway through the first period after Krug failed to clear the zone. But Boston tied it when Krug coasted in from the blue line and found Paille on the other side of the crease for quick redirect. The Bruins took the lead 3 minutes into the second when Krug wristed one through traffic and made it 3-1 four minutes later when he put another wrist shot on net and it was redirected past the goalie by Jets defenceman Jacob Trouba. "He handled himself well. He played well. When hes on top of his game, offensively, he makes things happen," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Just a few times its about him making safe plays. Thats a part of his game hes working on."t; Krug, who got a stick in the face on his final shift and had two cuts on his lip to show for it, said he was hoping that the first goal would have been tipped in by Justin Florek, who was making his NHL debut.dddddddddddd The second one was first credited to Carl Soderberg before it was changed to Krug. "Any time you cant contribute the way you were before, it can be frustrating," Krug said. Bruins defenceman Adam McQuaid said it was nice to see Krug contributing goals again. "The guys capable of doing it," he said. "It brings an element to our D corps that we need." Boston made it 4-1 when Reilly Smith cleaned up after Brad Marchands shot got past Pavelec. There were three fights in the game, with Zdeno Chara matching up against Chris Thorburn in the first period, followed 2 seconds later by Matt Fraser and James Wright. McQuaid fought with former Bruin Mark Stuart in the third period. "It was an opportunity for me to do something during the game early on, so I was trying to get into it," Thorburn said. "But any time you can get Chara off the ice too, a guy of his calibre, thats also a plus." Notes: The Bruins recalled Florek from Providence of the AHL on an emergency basis for the game. It was his NHL debut. ... It was Juliens 500th game as Bruins coach. He also coached the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils before coming to Boston in 2007. ... The U.S. womens Olympic hockey team attended the game and received a standing ovation and "U-S-A!" chant during the second period. ... The Atlanta/Winnipeg franchise has lost 12 straight in Boston. ' ' '