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Canada came up big against the best of the best at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final winning three golds - two in the Senior final and one at the Junior level, which took place simultaneously. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford in the pairs and Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in the ice dance, all had outstanding performances, posting their best total scores ever and winning in convincing fashions. The last time Canada won gold at a Grand Prix Final in pairs and dance was in 2001 with Jamie Sale and David Pelletier and Shae-Lynn Bourne and Victor Kraatz. The Junior events opened the show in Barcelona and the pairs gold was won by Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau with a flawless and touchingly emotional performance to Peter Gabriels In Your Eyes. After watching their performance, Duhamel and Radford passed by me backstage and Duhamel, clearly inspired by the young Canadians skate said to high performance director Michael Slipchuk, Now we know what we have to do tomorrow! What Canadas gold medal teams had to do to win was deliver their best ever. The kind of skate where one hits the elements with precision and ease and where one gets caught up in the music, the emotion and the audience. They all had those kinds of skates in Barcelona and it was quite remarkable. Both pairs of Duhamel and Radford and Weaver and Poje had the skates and scores that align them perfectly in their quest for a shot at the top of the Worlds podium at seasons end and, while they were expected to contend for gold here, what I find most surprising is the margin of points by which they won. The two teams went into the final in second on paper and in the end, Duhamel and Radford were ahead of the Olympic silver medalists Stolbova and Klimov of Russia by seven points and Weaver and Poje were ahead of their field by 14 points. The secret to Duhamel and Radfords success is to go after the first mark by packing in technical difficulty and then delivering it under pressure. Its a big risk, but, as we saw in Barcelona, it comes with a big reward. They went into the free skate with a seven-point base value advantage over the top Russian team, which basically meant that their tricks were more difficult by seven points. Their big-ticket items are their triple lutzes and their throw quad salchow, which was their best to date in Barcelona. Stolbova and Klimov could not make up the distance with their mastery and artistry this time and I will be interested to see what changes they might make to their strategy going forward. The Russian pair was not flawless at the final while Duhamel and Radford were, but that being said, technically, they are a significant way back. The Russians have some ground to make up and three months to do it. They will need to up the ante and add more rotations in the air to erase their jump disadvantage and control their destiny because the game changed in Barcelona and Duhamel and Radford are now in the drivers seat. Also with a game-changing performance, Weaver and Poje totally exceeded my expectations at the final, particularly in the free dance. I expected them to improve, as has been their trend each year. They often start out a little rough around the edges early on in the season. What was surprisingly different for me this year was the way in which their normally gradual progression became an evolution in Barcelona. They performed a lyrical, versatile and commanding free dance. Their power came with ease and softness. Their expression and emotion was sensitive and heartfelt. They hit the elements and got the levels that they had missed in previous outings without looking calculated or careful. The knack they had was to weave the elements, especially the lifts, into the dance, so there were no breaks or awkward adjustments. It was a dance that swept the audience along with it. They finished ahead of the field by 14 points, which is considered a huge lead as dance tends to be judged more tightly than the other disciplines. It looked like a World Championship performance, but with three months left in the season, it will be fun to see where they now take it. Sheldrick Redwine Jersey . Kerr said he had dinner with Jackson, his former coach with Chicago and the new Knicks team president, on Friday night and they talked again Saturday. Kerr is in New York to work the game between the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors for TNT. 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Costa Rica followed up its surprise win over Uruguay with another World Cup stunner on Friday, beating four-time champion Italy 1-0 to secure a spot in the next round and eliminate England in the process.QUITO, Ecuador -- Ecuador coach Reinaldo Rueda named three young Europe-based players in his 30-man preliminary squad for the World Cup on Wednesday. Midfielders Carlos Gruezo and Renato Ibarra, and defender Christian Ramirez have all made the initial cut. Gruezo plays for Stuttgart, Ramirez is with Fortuna Duesseldorf and Ibarra is with Dutch club Vitesse. "We are living a dream," Ramirez said. Ecuador, which is training in the Netherlands ahead of a friendly against the Dutch side on Saturday, is expected to name its final 23-man squad on May 23. The South American team will be playing in its third World Cup. That achievement was overshadowed by the death of striker Christian Benitez midway through qualifying, and filling the void he left will be the teams biggest challenge in Brazil. The 27-year-old Benitez died of heart failure in Qatar on July 29, only three weeks after joining local team El Jaish. He was Ecuadors star forward with 24 goals in 58 appearances. Benitez was a contender for the "best young player" award at the World Cup in 2006 when Ecuador reached the round of 16, its best-ever World Cup performance. Without him, Ecuador willl rely on Pachuca forward Enner Valencia.dddddddddddd Ecuador will face Switzerland, France and Honduras in Group E. The team opens against Switzerland on June 15 in Brasilia and is a clear contender in the wide-open group. ------ Squad: Goalkeepers: Alexander Dominguez (Liga de Quito), Maximo Banguera (Barcelona, Ecuador), Adrian Bone (El Nacional) Defenders: Jorge Guagua (Emelec), Gabriel Achilier (Emelec), Oscar Bagui (Emelec), Juan Carlos Paredes (Barcelona, Ecuador), Frickson Erazo (Flamengo), Walter Ayovi (Pachuca), Christian Ramirez (Fortuna), John Narvaez (Emelec) Midfielders: Pedro Quinonez (Emelec), Luis Fernando Saritama (Barcelona, Ecuador), Carlos Gruezo (Stuttgart), Antonio Valencia (Manchester United), Segundo Castillo (Al-Hilal), Christian Noboa (Dynamo Moscow), Renato Ibarra (Vitesse), Edison Mendez (Santa Fe), Oswaldo Minda (Barcelona, Ecuador), Michael Arroyo (Atlante), Fidel Martinez (Tijuana) Forwards: Armando Wila (Universidad Catolica), Jefferson Montero (Morelia), Jaime Ayovi (Tijuana), Enner Valencia (Pachuca), Joao Rojas (Cruz Azul), Felipe Caicedo (Al-Jazira), Cristian Penilla (Barcelona, Ecuador), Angel Mena (Emelec) ' ' '