Qi Miao also earns 1500m bronze medal; Victoria Jean-Baptiste sets new 500m junior world record with 42.920 mark
CALGARY, ALBERTA – Feeding off the energy of the hometown crowd, Canada’s top young skaters captured three medals on Saturday at the ISU World Junior Short Track Championships in Calgary, including 500m world titles for Qi Miao and Mathieu Pelletier.
Qi (Blainville, Que.) made a pass with two laps remaining in the 500m final to overtake Japan’s Ayano Sekiguchi, who had been in the lead since the opening gun. The 19-year-old cruised to victory with a time of 43.390, becoming the first Canadian to capture the World Junior Championship title in the distance since Florence Brunelle in 2022 and 2023. She was joined on the podium by Sekiguchi (43.509) and Wanyu Lyu of China (44.168).
A few hours earlier, Qi fought her way through a crowded eight person 1500m final to bring home bronze, the first individual distance World Junior Championship medal of her career. The reigning national champion made a move to the front of the pack with three laps remaining, jumping from fifth place to third, but was unable to break through the Korean duo of Oh Songmi (2:28.128) and Kim Minji (2:28.215), settling for the bronze medal.
“I feel very proud and very excited. My reaction after winning my first medal today was ‘finally’ because I’ve been competing at the junior level for four years now and had never won an individual distance medal. My expectations were high for this weekend, but it was my time, and I knew I could do it. I was very stressed before the 1500m, but felt way more confident for the 500m afterwards, especially since I was not super happy about only winning bronze.” Explained Qi Miao
Things were a little more hectic in the men’s 500m final, where Canada’s Pelletier came out on top. The Laval native was comfortably in third place before being bumped wide by his Belgian counterpart during the third lap. He worked his way back into podium position and benefitted from a crash that took out the first and second place skaters, allowing him to cross the line in gold medal position. Pelletier (41.647) was joined on the podium by China’s Li Xinyu (41.869), as well as Korea’s Kim Minwoo (50.312), who was the first of three fallen skaters to get back to his feet.
Pelletier becomes the first Canadian male to reach the podium in the distance since Steven Dubois won bronze in 2016 and the first to be crowned junior World Champion since Mikhail Choi in 2010.
“The competition did not start how I wanted it to. I feel that I was missing a little energy in my legs. Making the finals today was in itself a big step for me, so once I got there I was aiming for a medal. There were for sure a few things that happened during the race that helped me earn the gold medal, but I’m super happy with my performance. Setting the junior World Record in the 500m earlier this season was huge for my confidence, and now to see that I can compete with the best in the world makes me pretty proud.” Said Mathieu Pelletier
The ISU World Junior Short Track Championships conclude tomorrow at the Olympic Oval, where titles will be awarded in the men’s and women’s 1000m and 3000m relays, as well as the 2000m mixed relay. Tickets remain available for as low as $5 for kids and $15 for adults. Races will also be live streamed on CBC Sports digital platforms beginning at 1:30pm MT.