There was nothing second-rate about their performance, but second place is where Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir find themselves following their short program in the ice dance event on Sunday. Pepe Reina Jersey . Following a pattern that has become all too familiar for the defending Olympic champions, the American team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White bested Virtue and Moir by a margin of 2.56 points at the Iceberg Skating Palace in Sochi to take top spot. Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov fed off the pro-Russian crowd and tallied a 73.04, putting them in bronze-medal position heading into Mondays free dance (10:00 a.m. ET, streaming live at cbc.ca/olympics). Virtue and Moir, skating to Ella Fitzgeralds Dream a Little Dream of Me, put their slip-up in the team event far in the rear view mirror with a seemingly flawless performance, carving perfect turns, nailing their rotational lifts and staying in sync during their twizzle sequences. As the music ended and they struck their final pose, Moir let out a triumphant "Yes!", knowing that the skate represented one of their best performances of the season. Their joy was short-lived though, as their score of 76.33 came in below their season best score of 77.59 at the Grand Prix Finals in December, leaving the door wide open for the reigning world champions Davis and White, who set a new short dance world record with a score of 78.89. Canadas other medal hopefuls, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, skated a strong routine that earned them a 65.93, good for seventh place. The third Canadian entry, featuring Toronto-born Alexandra Paul and Barries Mitchell Islam, skated a light, airy and up-tempo routine, marred only by a small bobble on the opening twizzle by Paul. The 2010 world junior silver medallists finished with a score of 55.91, putting them in 18th place. Virtue and Moir have some work to do to catch the leaders, but they were still happy with how the day unfolded. "It was a really fun performance," the 24-year-old Virtue told CBC Sports. "Obviously, you are here to defend your title. You also want to have fun. You still love what you do." Moir, 26, said that it was this type of performance that has kept them going for the last four years. "Its definitely the reason we keep going. To be on this stage representing Canada, its a huge thing for Tessa and I to be part of a fantastic Olympic Canadian team." Moir added that they still get plenty of enjoyment out of competitions like these. "We love what we do. We love skating together. We have a lot of special moments, and that was one of them." Sundays short dance marked the third head-to-head battle between the Canadians and Americans at these Olympics. Davis and White beat Virtue and Moir by three points in the short dance portion of the team event early in the Games, and repeated the feat in the free dance portion with a seven-point victory. The two rivals bring contrasting styles to the sport. Virtue and Moir boast an elegant and flowing style, and a sense of unison that no other team can match, thanks to nearly 17 years as an on-ice tandem. Davis and White, on the other hand, typically display a faster and bolder technique than the Canadian duo, albeit one with arguably less precision. Virtue and Moir have laid claim to an Olympic gold medal in Vancouver, two world titles and six Canadian championships during their careers, but theyve consistently come up short against the American pair over the past two seasons, including at the 2013 world championship in Virtues hometown of London, Ont. What makes the rivalry even more peculiar, if not slightly peculiar, is the fact they share not only the same training facility in Canton, Mich., but also the same coach and choreographer, Russian-born Marina Zoueva. Zoueva has coached Davis and White for the past 14 years, and has been working with Virtue and Moir for 10 years. While they arent close friends with the Americans off the ice, Virtue and Moir have often said that they have a good relationship with them and that both sides enjoy the friendly rivalry. Another storyline that has surrounded the athletes since the team event, an alleged judging scandal, has fortunately faded into the background. During the opening weekend, the French sports publication LEquipe had reported that the American and Russian judges were conspiring against Canada in order to assure a gold medal for Russia in the team competition and gold for the U.S., in ice dancing. Despite being at the centre of the controversy, Virtue and Moir insist that the rumours havent affected their focus on or off the ice. Gerard Pique Spain Jersey .com) - The Oklahoma City Thunder will try to get back on track Monday night when they welcome the Minnesota Timberwolves to Chesapeake Energy Arena. Sergio Busquets Spain Jersey . Jannero Pargo scored 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to help the Charlotte Bobcats erase a 21-point deficit and rally for an 83-76 preseason victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night. http://www.spainsoccerpro.com/Marco-Asensio-Spain-Jersey/ . "Thank you for the warm welcome," Beckham said on an 80-degree February morning. In this case, it was soccer weather. The sport moved a step closer to returning to South Florida on Wednesday, when Beckham confirmed he has exercised his option to purchase a Major League Soccer expansion franchise in Miami.The NFL Players Association "tentatively agreed" to let the league take 40 blood samples for HGH tests each week during the season, with a positive result drawing a four-game suspension, according to a memo the union sent players. A copy of the NFLPAs email, written in a question-and-answer format, was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. The memo says "a computer program will randomly select" five players apiece from eight teams each week to take the blood tests. First, though, every player participating in NFL training camps this year will provide a blood sample and information about "height, weight, age, and race/ethnicity" for a "population study" to determine what level of HGH will result in penalties, the union wrote. The NFLPAs letter says that if more than 5 per cent of all training camp samples are above that threshold, players who fail will have "reasonable cause" testing during the next two seasons -- meaning theyll be subject to additional testing. A player testing positive again during the 2013-14 or 2014-15 seasons will get an eight-game suspension. A player without another positive result in that time will be removed from the extra testing program. Tuesdays email to players indicates the union has signed off on various aspects of the HGH program and says owners and players "will likely finalize soon" the in-season weekly testing. But the memo does not make clear what exactly the NFL has agreed to at this point or give specifics about what stands in the way of a final accord. No date has been set for the start of testing, because there are still issues that need to be negotiated between the NFL and union, includding whether the commissioner or a neutral arbitrator will handle certain types of appeals of discipline. Isco Spain Jersey. League spokesman Brian McCarthy declined to comment on any specifics in the NFLPA memo, writing in an email to the AP: "We do not have yet a comprehensive agreement for HGH testing." The league and the union originally paved the way for testing in the 10-year collective bargaining agreement they signed in August 2011, but two complete NFL seasons have come and gone -- and a third is right around the corner -- without a single HGH test being administered on a player. During the two years since, the sides have haggled over various elements, including details of the appeals process and the unions insistence on a population study to determine what is a naturally occurring amount of HGH in NFL players. HGH is a banned performance-enhancing drug that is hard to detect and has been linked to health problems such as diabetes, cardiac dysfunction and arthritis. In January, shortly before the Super Bowl, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, a California Republican, and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland wrote NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith to chastise the union for standing in the way of HGH testing and to warn that lawmakers could ask players to testify on Capitol Hill. Late last year, that House committee held a hearing at which medical experts testified that HGH testing is reliable and that the unions request for a population study was unnecessary. But in March, a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a case involving a cross-country skier raised questions about the reliability of thresholds for HGH tests. 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