Duhamel, Radford dominate figure skating world championships

Canada's Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford inched towards clinching the world title in Shanghai Wednesday, taking the lead in the pairs short program by a huge four points.
Dancing to "Un peu plus haut" by Ginette Reno, the duo proved why they were the pre-tournament favourites with a dominant display which put them in first place with a seemingly unassailable 76.98 points.
Their nearest opponents, China's Pang Qing and Tong Jian, scored 72.59, but will need to perform miracles to overcome the Canadian champions in Thursday's free-skating final.
Duhamel and Radford have been in scintillating form this season, and remain undefeated after clinching the Grand Prix Finals in December and Four Continents last month.
Following their heroics in Shanghai, Duhamel spoke of how "difficult" it was to perform, given the intense home support for their Chinese rivals in the noisy Oriental Sports Centre.
"We are really happy with our performance today. We are extremely proud of ourselves," she said.
"It is difficult to go out on the ice when everybody skates so well, especially when the crowd is going crazy for the fellow competitors."
Radford said the pair were "confident" heading into the final, and were looking to continue their incredible form.
"We know we can do our job in the moment because we have done it in training and have done it in the past competitions," he said.
"Having a great skate in the short course helps us feel more relaxed and also our scores allow us a bit more freedom in terms of trying to get that perfect skate verses a really good skate.
"But overall I think we feel very, very confident going into tomorrow.  Aside from just having a clean skate we want to have a great performance."
Pang and Tong, meanwhile, came out of retirement to perform in Shanghai and were warmly welcomed by a passionate home-crowd.
Chinese pair Sui Wenjing and Han Cong also lapped up the support, finishing third on 71.63 with an upbeat dance to "Stray Cat Strut" by Brian Setzer.
Peng Cheng and Zhang Hao were the third Chinese pair to make the top five with a score of 69.67, behind Russians Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov who finished fourth with 71.59 points.
- Ice dance -
In the ice dance competition, US champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates took an early lead after the short programme with a career-best score.
The pair edged Canadian rivals Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje with 74.47 points, well ahead of last month's Four Continent's winners, who scored 72.68.
French hopefuls Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron settled for fourth place on 71.94, behind Italians Anna Cappellini and Luca Lanotte who were on 72.39.
It was a sweet victory for Chock and Evans, who now have a day to prepare ahead of the final free dance on Friday.
But they are mindful of their experience at the Four Continents in Seoul, where they led at the first stage, only to slip into second place behind Weaver and Poje.
"Our experience at the Four Continents was huge for us," said Evans.
"We were in the same scenario, leading going into the free dance, and we weren't particularly thrilled with our free dance. We knew we could skate better."
Evans said the experience would help the couple "attack the program" and skate "as if we were coming from behind."
Weaver and Poje -- who also won December's Grand Prix Final in Barcelona -- were heavily backed before the tournament to win in Shanghai.
Weaver said the pair were upbeat heading into the next stage of the competition.
"Andrew and I are very happy with our short dance today," she told reporters.
"We were able to focus and be in the zone."
The ISU World Figure Skating Championships are being held in Shanghai until Saturday.
Source: AFP