Chan wins second gold for Canada despite fall

Patrick Chan successfully defended his men's figure skating title to give Canada their second gold at the world championships here on Saturday despite a fall during the free skate final. The 21-year-old's title follows that of Olympic champions Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir who reclaimed the ice dancing crown for their second world gold earlier in the week. Chan had already fallen during the short programme but despite hitting the ice again during his free skate to Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez he held off Japanese skaters Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu. Takahashi, the 2010 champion, took silver ahead of 17-year-old Hanyu, whose stunning free skate to Romeo and Juliet saw him surge from seventh after the short programme to medal at his first worlds. "I put everything I had into my programme today," said Hanyu. "I didn't feel any pressure. My emotions are for the people in Japan who are still recovering from the (tsunami/quake) disaster and they gave me lots of motivation and energy," said the skater from Sendai. It is the first time that two Japanese men have stood on the podium at worlds. Chan became the first skater to defend his title since Swiss Stephane Lambiel in 2006. The Canadian hit two quadruple jumps, including a quad-triple toeloop combination, but fell on a foot sequence and stumbled on one of his seven triple jumps. But he was still too good for his rivals finishing with 266.11 points to give him gold by 6.45 points on Takahashi, who skated cleanly to the music "Blues for Klook" by Eddy Louis and achieved 259.66. Hanyu achieved the second highest free skate scores behind Chan despite an inexplicable fall himself during his circular step sequence. The teenager hit his opening quad toeloop jump followed by three more difficult triple jumps when he lost his footwork and fell to the ice before pulling himself together to hit five more triples. He capped the routine with a back-breaking Biellmann spin for personal best scores of 173.99 in the free skate and an overall total of 251.06 points. Home hope Brian Joubert, the 2007 world champion, finished off the podium in fourth, with Czech skater Michal Brezina slipping to sixth from second after the short programme after an error-strewn free skate. Japan's reigning world silver medallist Takahiko Kozuka finished in 11th position. Meanwhile, the competition concludes later Saturday with Russia's Alena Leonova leading the ladies event ahead of Japan's Kanako Murakami and Italy's Carolina Kostner going in the free skating final.