MONTREAL, QUEBEC – The Canadian short track speed skating team kicked off Olympic season by winning four medals on home ice at the ISU Short Track World Tour stop in Montreal on Saturday.
Dandjinou (Montreal, Que.) was the first to contribute to the medal haul with a gold medal performance in the men’s 500m, leading an extremely quick final, featuring three Canadians, from start to finish (40.350). His teammate Steven Dubois (Lachenaie, Que.), reining World Champion in the distance, moved up from the fifth starting position to claim the bronze medal (40.480), behind Italian Pietro Sieghel (40.414).
The Canadians men just missed out on their first podium sweep in nearly 15 years, as Maxime Laoun (Montreal, Que.) finished the 500m in fourth place (40.557). Fellow Canadian Félix Roussel (Sherbrooke, Que.) also came up just a bit short of the podium in the men’s 1500m, earning a fourth place in his first race of the season.
Sarault (Moncton, N.B.) kept the excitement going for the over 1,750 fans in attendance at the Maurice Richard Arena, delivering a gold medal skate in the women’s 1000m. The silver medalist in the distance at last year’s World Championships in Beijing made a beautiful inside pass on U.S. skater Corinne Stoddard to take the lead, then used a defensive track to protect the lead until crossing the finish line in 1:28.185, ahead of Korea’s Kim Gilli (1:28.250) and Stoddard (1:28.279).
Sarault later joined teammates Kim Boutin (Sherbrooke, Que.), Danaé Blais (Châteauguay, Que.) and Florence Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, Que.) on the podium of the women’s 3000m relay, with the Canadians winning bronze behind the Koreans (4:07.318) and Dutch (4:07.350).
The first ISU Short Track World Tour stop of the season concludes Sunday at the Maurice-Richard Arena, with medals up for grabs in the women’s 500m and 1500m, as well as the men’s 1000m and 5000m relay.
Tickets can be purchased at www.courtepiste.ca and races will be live streamed on CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports digital platforms.
Quotes
“I went all out today and the racing was fast. My injury is holding up super well and I’m not feeling sore at all right now, so that’s a huge mental boost and gives me some confidence for what is coming up next. I started to feel better and better as the rounds went by, so I’m pretty hyped for tomorrow,” shared Steven Dubois.
“To start the season with kind of a bang was exciting for me, and exciting for the team as well. It provides a little boost to the spirits and shows that if we can perform at Canadian Championships, then we can also perform on the international stage. This one was special because we knew I was strong, but we didn’t know how it would correlate to the World Tour. The other skaters have been working all summer too, so you never really know where you stand at the first competition of the season and are kind of gaging how others are skating. I think that’s why we were so excited after the race,” shared Courtney Sarault.