Canadian Short Track Championships Kick-Off Saturday in Montreal
The country’s top skaters will battle it out for a national title and to put themselves in contention to represent Canada at Beijing 2022
PHOTO: Greg Kolz
MONTREAL, QUEBEC – The 2021 Canadian Short Track Championships presented by Intact Insurance – the first national level competition on Canadian ice since February 2020 – gets underway this weekend at the Maurice Richard Arena in Montreal.
The races will be live streamed on Speed Skating Canada’s YouTube channel and Facebook page, allowing the entire speed skating community to enjoy the long anticipate return of our sport.
This year’s Canadian Short Track Championships, which run from August 21-29, will feature the country’s top 20 skaters per gender and will be used to crown national champions. The results from this competition will help select the members of the National Team and NextGen Team for the 2021-2022 season, while also serving as a pre-selection event for the team that will represent Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
This grueling five day competition will see skaters complete each of the three individual distances (500m, 1000m and 1500m) three separate times.
- Saturday, August 21: 1500m (1) and 500m (1)
- Sunday, August 22: 1000m (1) and 1500m (2)
- Wednesday, August 25: 500m (2) and 1000m (2)
- Saturday, August 28: 1000m (3)
- Sunday, August 29: 500m (3) and 1500m (3)
Skaters will be allocated ranking points based on their position after each of the nine events, which will be used to calculate their overall ranking at the end of the competition. Using those final rankings and the criteria established in the 2022 Short Track Olympic Selection Policies and Procedures, six male and six female skaters will be selected to the Special Olympic Qualification Competitions (SOQC) Racing Pool.
The members of the SOQC Racing Pool will represented Canada on the World Cup circuit this fall. To be eligible to be nominated to the Beijing 2022 team, athletes must first qualify for the SOQC Racing Pool at this event. They’ll put themselves in contention for the Beijing 2022 team based on their performances at the four fall World Cup competitions, which are scheduled for Beijing (CHN), Nagoya (JPN), Debrecen (HUN) and Dordrecht (NED).
Athletes currently on the National Team were automatically qualified for the Canadian Championships. The remaining spots were filled based on the results of a 9-Lap Pursuit time trial that took place August 19, 2021. Quebec has the largest contingent of participants, but skaters from New Brunswick, Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia and Northwest Territories also lacing up for the competition:
Women
- Courtney Sarault (NB)
- Florence Brunelle (QC)
- Alyson Charles (QC)
- Danaé Blais (QC)
- Claudia Gagnon (QC)
- Kim Boutin (QC)
- Camille De Serres-Rainville (QC)
- Rikki Doak (NB)
- Renee Steenge (ON)
- Ann-Sophie Bachand (QC)
- Léa Tessier (QC)
- Alex Lepage-Farrell (QC)
- Victoria Gareau (QC)
- Victoria Goplen (AB)
- Karina Montminy (QC)
- Béatrice Delorme (QC)
- Anne-Clara Belley (QC)
- Wren Acorn (NWT)
- Amélie Tremblay (QC)
- Miao Qi (QC)
Men
- Charles Hamelin (QC)
- Maxim Laoun (QC)
- Steven Dubois (QC)
- William Dandjinou (QC)
- Jordan Pierre Gilles (QC)
- Pascal Dion (QC)
- Alphonse Ouimette (ON)
- Nicolas Perreault (QC)
- Alexandre Migner (QC)
- Samuel Green (B.C.)
- Jérôme Courtemanche (QC)
- Félix Roussel (QC)
- Alexis Marceau (QC)
- Matej Pederson (AB)
- Ethan Mckinley-Young (ON)
- Philippe Daudelin (QC)
- Émilien Blackburn (QC)
- Thomas Simpkin (QC)
- Victor Roy-Lafrance (QC)
- Justin Bergeron (QC)
Kim Boutin and Steven Dubois were dominant at the last Canadian Short Track Championships in September 2019, winning gold medals in each of the six distances to finish atop the overall ranking and earn the title of national champions. The top medal winners that weekend, outside of Boutin and Dubois, were Pascal Dion (4), Cédrik Blais (3) and Maxime Laoun (3) on the men’s side; and Courtney Sarault (3), Alyson Charles (3), Danaé Blais (2) and Rikki Doak (2) on the women’s side.
Last season’s Canadian Short Track Championships were unfortunately cancelled due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic
MEDIA CONTACT
Alain Brouillette
Speed Skating Canada
communications@speedskating.ca
613-601-2630