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Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford added a quadruple throw to their program this year to push themselves as much as to push the sport. Cheap Steve Cishek Jersey .The difficult element has helped propel the Canadians up the pairs figure skating rankings.Duhamel and Radford go into the Grand Prix Final this week ranked No. 2, trailing Olympic silver medallists Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov of Russia.The two-time world bronze medallists spent much of the off-season perfecting the quad throw Salchow, which has Radford throwing Duhamel four revolutions through the air.Anything that pushes us and pushes the sport we feel is important, Duhamel said. Adding the throw quad to our skating has kept us really motivated, its encouraged us. . . and not just for us, were looking to push the sport of skating. Weve been seeing the throw triple Salchow for 30 or 40 years now, so I think its time that people push it and try harder things.Canada has three entries at the Final in Barcelona — Duhamel and Radford, and ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., had considered doing the throw quad years ago, but their coaches believed it wasnt worth the risk. They decided to add it this past off-season, and drew an audience when they were working on it during practices in Montreal.Every day it got closer and closer, eventually I would land on my feet and put my hand down, or I would step out, and it was so exciting for us and our coaches and teammates, they would all stand back and watch, and would be like Ooh, is this the one shes going to nail? Duhamel said.Then the one day we hit it clean with a lot of flow out of it, we were like, Oh thats it, thats what it feels like. And weve been able to repeat that feeling quite consistently.Duhamel landed the quad throw at Skate Canada International, but then fell on it at the NHK Trophy two weeks ago in Japan.The Canadians have a seasons best score of 210.74 points, just behind the Russians, whose best is 211.97. Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, the only other pairs team in the world currently doing the quad throw, are also in the field.Partly because of the quad throw, Duhamel and Radford went into this season reinvigorated after a gruelling Olympic campaign that saw them finish seventh in Sochi.We dont have any fear when were skating anymore. Last year, I was always scared, I was scared we would lose, I was scared wed be bad, I was scared the other Canadian teams would score higher than me, Duhamel said. Im so happy. . . that I didnt decide to quit last year because I would never know what it feels like to skate with this freedom and relaxation that weve found.There was a lot of pressure last season, and at the end we realized we put too much pressure on ourselves, Radford added. We were always comparing ourselves with everybody else, rather than just concentrating on ourselves, and I think that weve just sort of learned to let all of that go, all of that extra worrying and energy that we put everywhere else.Weaver and Poje, from Waterloo, Ont., will also be in the gold-medal hunt in Barcelona. The Canadians have the seasons second-best ice dance score behind Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates.The post-Olympic landscape for ice dancing has changed with the absence of Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and Weaver and Poje could be favourites three years from now at the Games in South Korea.Its been very exciting, its a new year, a new quadrennial and were happy to be at the forefront of it, and hoping to continue Canadas tradition of great domination in ice dance, Weaver said.Asked if theyd sought out any advice on how to handle the new pressures that came with heightened expectations, Weaver mentioned Canadian bobsledder Kaillie Humphries.The biggest thing she has is confidence in herself, and she knows how shes prepared and she knows that thats the best she can do, and I think thats what really exudes from her, Weaver said. Its tough in a different sport with something like bobsled where youre racing against the clock and you dont have to convince people youre the best. But that type of persona is fun to learn from, and I consider us pretty different individuals, but that strength of power and confidence is something I would love to bring as a part of our game as well.In mens singles, Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu hopes to defend his title and recover his winning form after a scary on-ice accident.Hanyu won last years final at home in Japan. He then started the year by claiming gold at the Sochi Games in February, and a month later he won the world title to become the first man to complete the Olympic-world double in the same year since Alexei Yagudin in 2002.But Hanyu, who turned 20 on Sunday, barely qualified for the Final after he was injured in a collision with another skater during warm-ups at the Cup of China in early November, receiving bruises on his head and hurting his left thigh.Three weeks later, he could only manage a fourth-place finish at the last of six qualifying events in Tokyo. That result, however, was just good enough for him to join the other five finalists and keep alive his bid to repeat.Ill be going to the final as a challenger, Hanyu said. It doesnt matter if you are Olympic champion, people know they can beat the Olympic champion. Ill be starting from scratch and aiming to get to the top by any means.Hanyu will be up against Japanese teammates Tatsuki Machida and Takahito Mura, Russian rivals Maxim Kovtun and Sergei Voronov, and Spanish skater Javier Fernandez.Fernandez, the European champion, trains in Canada with former Olympic silver medallist Brian Orser. Orser also coaches Hanyu.Four Russian teenagers will look for a possible medal sweep in the womens final against Ashley Wagner of the United States and Rika Hongo of Japan. Hongo qualified after American skater Gracie Gold withdrew because of a broken foot.The Russian contingent includes two-time junior world champion Elena Radionova (15), European champion and world silver medallist Julia Lipnitskaia (16), Anna Pogorilaya (16) and Elizaveta Tuktamysheva (17).— With files from The Associated Press. Cheap Drew Smyly Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Cheap Kosuke Fukudome Jersey .com) - Bradley Beal deposited a season-high 33 points and John Wall posted another double-double as the Washington Wizards went on the road and beat the Houston Rockets, 104-103. http://www.cheapcubsjerseysauthentic.com/?tag=cheap-carlos-zambrano-jersey . Salah, who scored against Chelsea in two Champions League group matches this season, is Jose Mourinhos third significant recruit in the January transfer window after Nemanja Matic and Bertrand Traore.BERLIN - Bayern Munich looks likely to wrap up another successful year by claiming two more Bundesliga records, while Borussia Dortmund is desperate to avoid the winter break in the relegation zone.Both sides have experienced vastly contrasting fortunes in the league this season, leaving Wolfsburg, Borussia Moenchengladbach, Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke to scrap it out for the privilege of being best of the rest. Dortmund is merely fighting for survival.Five points are all that separate last-place Werder Bremen from 10th-place Cologne, ensuring the whole bottom half of the table is concerned with relegation.Here are some things to know ahead of the last set of games before the Bundesligas six-week winter break:___BAYERNLIGABayern has all but clinched the league title even before the halfway point. The defending champions have an 11-point lead over second-place Wolfsburg after 16 games with 39 goals and only three conceded.Bayern was already assured of the top spot going into the winter break with two games to spare for the unofficial autumn championship title. On only three of the previous 19 occasions has the club failed to go on and then win the league.Unless Bayern concedes four goals at Mainz on Friday, the side will set a record for the fewest goals conceded in the opening half of the season. If it wins, it will beat its own record of 44 points at the halfway stage of the 2005-06 season by one point.Unbeaten in the Bundesliga this season, with two defeats last season and only one the season before, Bayern has only its own records to beat.___BREITNERS BROADSIDEBayern representative and former player Paul Breitner has criticized the clubs domestic rivals for not doing enough to keep up.Perhaps Real Madrid or Barcelona would be opponents of which wed say, OK, you can lose against them. But seriously, who should this team lose against in the form theyre in at the mmoment? he asked on Sport1 television. Cheap Cubs Jerseys China. Breitner dismissed the idea of distributing more German Football League money to the smaller clubs to help them better compete.Stop with this nonsense. Bayern cant do anything about the other clubs failures, said Breitner, who also criticized Dortmund: You always have the situation where clubs that cant be relegated get suddenly relegated because they think they are too good.___DORTMUND DOLDRUMSBayerns main domestic rival for the past four seasons, Dortmund, remains in the relegation zone with one point from its last two games.The 2011 and 2012 champions have lost nine times already this season, more than any other side in the league, and next face Werder Bremen, which has shown signs of improvement under new coach Viktor Skripnik despite finding itself in last place.Dortmund has been hit by injuries but a bigger problem has been its inability to score. Only three sides have scored fewer goals.Meanwhile, as the pressure builds, anxiety is leading to defensive lapses, and Dortmund seems unable to hang onto a lead. Dortmund led twice against Wolfsburg on Wednesday but had to settle for a 2-2 draw.___FEARLESS FRANKFURTEintracht Frankfurt is quickly becoming the most entertaining side in the league. Since former Werder Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf took over in the off-season, the team has been adopting his cavalier style to games: lots of goals, not so much emphasis on defence.At home against Hertha Berlin on Wednesday, Frankfurt found itself three goals down to the visitors by the 37th minute, then 4-2 down by the 80th, only for league-leading scorer Alexander Meier to score twice in injury time to salvage an unlikely draw.Its tremendous fun to work with this team but its not good for the nerves, said Schaaf, whose side the second best attack and the second worst defence, with 33 goals scored and conceded. 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