Boutin, Sarault, Brunelle, Dubois, Dion and Pierre-Gilles qualify for this season’s World Cup racing pool
Credit: Antoine Saito, Speed Skating Canada
MONTREAL, QUEBEC – Kim Boutin and Steven Dubois were crowned national champions following an exciting final day of racing at the 2021 Canadian Short Track Championships presented by Intact Insurance in Montreal.
Boutin finished atop the women’s standings with 40,000 points in her two best distances. She was joined on the overall podium by Courtney Sarault (34,000) and Florence Brunelle (30496). Meanwhile, Dubois was the top male skater with 38,000 total points, ahead of Pascal Dion (34,400) and Jordan Pierre-Gilles (27,920).
Boutin and Dubois were also the overall champions at the last Canadian Short Track Championships in September 2019. Last season’s Canadian Championships were unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sarault (0:43,624) earned her first victories of the competition on Sunday, brining home the third 500m ahead of Boutin (0:43,702) and Alyson Charles (0:43,901). Teammates Boutin and Brunelle got tied up during a pass attempt from the latter, which allowed the Moncton native to overtake them both and hold on for the win. Later in the afternoon, the 21-year old Sarault also won the third 1500m (2:19,927), passing Boutin (2:20,058) on the final lap of a back-and-forth race. Claudia Gagnon was third (2:20,382).
William Dandjinou also had his best day at the rink on the final day of the competition, winning the third and final men’s 500m. The Montreal native (0:40,742) executed a precise inside pass on Dubois (0:40,819) to take the lead in the finals, which he never relinquished. Pierre-Gilles (0:41,058), who won the first 500m of the competition, finished third (0:41,058).
Dubois redeemed himself in the men’s 1500m, crossing the line in 2:18,394 to defeat a stacked final grouping that included Dandjinou (2:18,709), Dion (2:18,761) and Pierre-Gilles (2:18,848).
Six Skaters Selected to World Cup Racing Pool
The three highest ranked skaters per gender – Boutin, Sarault and Brunelle on the women’s side; Dubois, Dion and Pierre-Gilles on the men’s side – earned an automatic berth on the Special Olympic Qualification Competitions (SOQC) Racing Pool, the group of skaters that will represent Canada on the World Cup circuit this fall.
The remaining three places per gender in the SOQC Racing Pool will be awarded in accordance to the criteria established in the 2022 Short Track Olympic Selection Policies and Procedures, which can be simplified as the following:
- Maximum of two places can be filled via accepted bye requests from injured skaters
- Additional places can be filled by the winners of each individual distance (if applicable) OR the fourth ranked skater in the overall rankings
- The remaining places can be filled by discretionary selections (a maximum of two)
To be eligible to be nominated to represent Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing., 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).
The results from these Canadian Short Track Championships will also be used to select the members of the National Team and NextGen Team for the 2021-2022 season. Both of those teams will be revealed in the coming weeks.
All five days of racing from this season’s first national level short track competition can be re-watched on Speed Skating Canada’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.
QUOTES
I’m really proud of the week I have had. I think the break I took was essential for me, not only for my physical health but for my mental health as well. Three months ago, I had a lot of trouble being happy on the ice, but I really worked on things and today I can say that I’m really proud of what I accomplished. It was a big personal journey for me. I’m surrounded by very good people at the moment, and I am happy with where I’m at.” – Kim Boutin
“It went really well this week and I’m very happy. I found it difficult [for the 1500m] because I didn’t really have anything at stake. The only motivator for me was to rank in the top-2 so that I could race this distance at the World Cups. I told myself that I was to find a way to challenge myself tactically to learn from this race. I followed my race plan perfectly and it worked really well.” – Steven Dubois
RANKINGS
Rankings are calculated based on the best 2 of 3 race results in each skater’s best 2 distances.
Men’s
- Steven Dubois 38,000
- Pascal Dion 34,400
- Jordan Pierre-Gilles 27,920
- William Dandjinou 27,349
- Nicolas Perreault 23,773
Women’s
- Kim Boutin 40,000
- Courtney Sarault 34,000
- Florence Brunelle 30,496
- Alyson Charles 29,120
- Camille de Serres-Rainville 23,040
Media Contact
Alain Brouillette
Speed Skating Canada