LONDON, Ont. -- Canadians Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford captured a bronze medal in pairs Friday at the world figure skating championships in a result that had onlookers shaking their heads.
Duhamel, from Lively, Ont., and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., registered 204.56 points to improve upon their fifth-place finish in last year's world championships.
It was Canada's first world pairs medal since Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison claimed bronze in 2008.
Russians Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov captured the gold medal with 225.71, while four-time world champions Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy of Germany won the silver with 205.56.
Kirsten Moore-Towers of St. Catharines, Ont., and Dylan Moscovitch of Toronto narrowly missed claiming a medal, finishing fourth with 199.50 points.
It was a bittersweet afternoon for Duhamel and Radford, whose only noticeable error in their skate to music to the British movie "Angel" was a botched three-jump combination that looked like they lost their momentum midway.
But their skate was considerably cleaner than that of Savchenko and Szolkowy, whose error-filled program had Twitter abuzz with references to a "trainwreck." Savchenko doubled a couple of planned triple jumps, while Szolkowy fell on a triple Salchow.
Volosozhar and Trankov also were far from perfect, with Trankov falling on a throw.
The Canadians' combined results guarantee that Canada will have three pairs entries in next year's Sochi Olympics.
