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MONTREAL -- Charles Hamelin took another step toward the overall world championship title, but the bad luck goes on for Canadas relay team. Hamelin overcame a weak start to win bronze in the 500-metre race behind winner Wu Dajing of China and American J.R. Celski on Saturday at the world short track speed skating championship. The Ste-Julie, Que., skater cut to the outside in a desperate bid for the win and came close to catching Celski at the finish line with the large crowd at the Maruice Richard Arena in a frenzy. "The four guys in that final were the four best 500-metre skaters in the world, so it was tough," said Hamelin, who was coming off a win in the 1,500-metre event on Friday. "I made a little mistake at the beginning. "I got passed by the Russian (Victor An) and was back in fourth place. I had a lot of speed. I went outside. It was my last option. I tried my best and was almost second." The 29-year-old, who has twice been runner-up for the overall title but never won it, leads the standings heading into the final two individual events -- the 1,000 and 3,000 metres -- on Sunday. An, a five-time overall world champion formerly known as Ahn Hyun-Soo, finished fourth. Park Seung-Hi of South Korea won the womens 500-metres ahead of Elise Christie of Britain and Fan Kexin of China. Disaster struck for the Canadian team in the mens relay semifinals when veteran Olivier Jean got caught in traffic and missed an exchange with Hamelin with only eight laps to go. The mishap dropped Canada from second to last place among the four teams and they couldnt catch up. Only the top two, Russia and Britain, earned a spot in Sundays relay final. "We got passed by the Chinese guy on the corner where we exchanged and it got mixed up.," said Michael Gilday of Yellowknife. "We didnt get our exchange in until a lap later and the other teams had already launched away. "Olivier was supposed to exchange with Charles on the corner where he got pushed out. There were a bunch of skaters and they couldnt tag together. It was a mess." At the Sochi Olympics three weeks ago, Canadas favoured relay team was eliminated in the semifinals when Francois Hamelin stepped on a marker disc and fell. "Thats short track," said Gilday. "It sucks. Clearly we havent had the breaks this year." South Korea and the Netherlands will also contest the mens relay final. Canada will have a team in the womens final. Jean opted not to talk to the media. The Lachanie, Que. skater, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, had been eliminated in the 500-metre quarter-finals along with Charle Cournoyer of Boucherville, Que., the bronze medallist in the event in Sochi. Marianne St-Gelais of St. Felicien, Que., and Marie-Eve Drolet of Laterriere, Que., were both ousted in the womens semifinals. "Im pretty happy, actually, because its not my best distance," said Drolet, who will have a better shot at a medal in the 1,000-metre race. "Im not a great sprinter, so it was super-fun to see that I could be fast and do a good race." St-Gelais said she may have psyched herself out before her semifinal because of an outside starting position. "I think I got scared at the (starting) line," she said. "I was thinking I would be squished behind two girls. Usually I dont think about those kinds of things, but that idea crossed my mind just before the start. I knew my race was done at that point." It was a happier day for Christie, who was shut out of the medals in Sochi after being penalized three times. The Scottish skater shot out to the lead off the start, only to be passed on the next-to-last lap by Park. It looked like the two might collide, but Christie said she backed off of any contact. "I probably could have won, but in the back of my head I was thinking about the fact that I got penalties, so when Park came through I let her go," said Christie. "I didnt try to get past because I just didnt want to get another penalty, to be honest." Christie came to the world championship seeking to redeem the Sochi setback and now is looking forward to her best event, the 1,000-metres. "It is my beat distance, but again, Ill be racing quite withdrawn," she said. "Im trying to stay out of fights and stuff, so that could play to my disadvantage. But maybe now that Ive got a medal, I might just go for it." Park won bronze in the 1,500-metres on Friday. She was a gold medallist in the 1,000-metre and the womens relay and got bronze in the 500-metres in Sochi. The Olympic 500-metre champion, Li Jiarrou of China, is not competing at the world championship. 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Cheap Air Jordan Wholesale China .com) - The Toronto Blue Jays will look to snap a three-game skid Friday night when they continue their road trip in the opener of a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.ST. LOUIS - Matt Adams could barely contain his enthusiasm and he didnt really try, either. He thrust both arms in the air while still in the batters box and added a couple of big hops to his home run trot as he approached first base.A stunned Clayton Kershaw, bent over at the waist with his hands on his knees, watched from the mound as the long drive off Big Citys bat propelled St. Louis to a fourth straight NL Championship Series.Some people are calling it the Big City Leap, Adams said. I was just super-excited, I didnt know what I was doing ... I knew I was jumping for joy.The Cardinals tagged Kershaw in the seventh inning for the second straight time, riding Adams go-ahead, three-run homer to a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday for a 3-1 win in the best-of-five Division Series.I dont think I touched the ground the whole way around the bases, Adams said. Definitely the highlight of my career. ... I will never, ever forget this.Neither will Kershaw.The Cardinals sent the Dodgers home for the second post-season in a row with a win over Kershaw. Last year it was in Game 6 of the NLCS.The season ended and I was a big part of the reason why, Kershaw said. I cant really put it into words, Just bad deja vu all over again.The NLCS starts Saturday in St. Louis, with the Cardinals hosting San Francisco in a rematch of 2012 won by the Giants.Trevor Rosenthal allowed two runners in the ninth before getting Carl Crawford on a grounder for a game-ending forceout for his third save of the series. At AT&T Park in San Francisco, fans cheered when the rival Dodgers were eliminated.It was awesome, everything we did throughout that game, starter Shelby Miller said. It was a heck of a game and a lot of fun, I know that.An overwhelming favourite to win his third NL Cy Young Award in four years, Kershaws October resume is a wreck.Kershaw dropped to 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA in 11 post-season games, including three relief appearances early in his career. He has lost four straight starts to St. Louis over the past two postseasons.Ive had success against them, too, Kershaw said. It just seems like one inning gets me every time. And obviously thats not success.While the steady Cardinals advanced to their ninth NLCS in 15 years, the defeat was a huge disappointment for the NL West champion Dodgers, who finished the regular season with a $256 million payroll that was $40 million higher than any other team.Los Angeles remains without a pennant since winning the 1988 World Series.Its awful, catcher A.J. Ellis said. Its devastating. It just kind of rehashes those old memories.Manager Don Mattingly wasnt about to second-guess leaving Kershaw in the game, especially with a bullpen thats foundered. He wanted the leftty to get three more outs.ddddddddddddIt goes back to the same question: Is there anybody better, even on short rest, and even where he was at that point? Mattingly said.Kershaw started on three days rest for the second time in his post-season career. He was dominant into the seventh, as he was in Game 1, but again started the inning with three straight hits.The third hit Tuesday came when Adams, the burly bopper know as Big City, drove a curveball on Kershaws 102nd pitch into the right-centre bullpen to put St. Louis up 3-2.I had a pretty good idea that it was gone, Adams said.The red-clad crowd roared and twirled white towels as Kershaw made a slow slog back to the Dodgers dugout.Kershaw allowed one homer to left-handed batters while going 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA in the regular season. He gave up two to the Cardinals, with Matt Carpenter connecting in the opener. The left-handed ace is 0-3 with a 9.72 ERA in his last three post-season appearances.Reliever Marco Gonzales earned his second victory of the series, after getting treated for a nosebleed. The rookie lefty got Adrian Gonzalez on a groundout to end the seventh and strand two runners.Pat Neshek worked a perfect eighth for the second straight game and Rosenthal pitched the ninth for a second straight day, receiving two visits to the mound from catcher Yadier Molina and one from the pitching coach after a shaky start to the inning.Kershaw had yielded only one hit through six innings and struck out nine, including three in a row in the sixth.But Matt Holliday opened the seventh with a sharp single up the middle off second baseman Dee Gordons glove, and Jhonny Peralta lined another single before Adams homered off a left-hander for the first time since July 7.The Cardinals had an NL-low 105 homers this season and left-hander batters had only eight homers against lefty pitching. But lefties hit five off Dodgers southpaws in four playoff games.Miller matched Kershaw into the sixth, when the Dodgers started the inning with two hits. They scored a run on Matt Kemps double-play grounder and added another on Juan Uribes RBI single against Seth Maness.But Los Angeles wasted a chance to add on when Andre Ethier, playing in place of Yasiel Puig, was picked off third by Molina a call overturned by video review.Miller went 5 2-3 innings in his first post-season start.UP NEXTCardinals: Adam Wainwright gets extra rest after a Game 1 dud when he was charged with six runs in 4 1-3 innings at Dodger Stadium. He was 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA in September with two complete games, one of them a shutout.FIRST PITCHScott Rolen, who earned three of his seven Gold Gloves at third base and was a key member of two World Series teams, threw out the first pitch. ' ' '