Sarault claims 1500m gold; Dubois back on 500m podium with silver
ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN – Canada’s short track team earned a pair of World Cup medals early Saturday morning, as Courtney Sarault won gold in the women’s 1500m, and Steven Dubois brought home silver in the men’s 500m.
For the second weekend in a row, Sarault battled with Belgium’s Hanne Desmet until the very end of the women’s 1500m, with the Canadian coming out on top this time around.
Despite losing her balance on the back straight after picking her blade into the ice, the Moncton native (2:33.691) was able to execute an inside pass to overtake Desmet (2:33.799) at the line and claim gold. Suk Hee Shim of Korea (2:34.462) finished in bronze medal position.
Saturday’s victory marked the second career World Cup gold medal for Sarault, who captured her first last weekend in the 1000m. The 22-year-old is now ranked second overall in the World Cup standings with 478 points, behind only Suzanne Schulting (612 points)
On the men’s side, speedster Steven Dubois return to the World Cup podium for the first time since the season opener in Montreal, where he won a medal in both of his individual distances.
The 25-year-old captured silver in the men’s 500m on Saturday. His time of 41.153 seconds placed him behind Poland’s Diane Sellier (41.104) and ahead of Kazakhstan’s Denis Nishika (41.267).
Starting from the inner most position, Dubois held the lead for the first two laps before being passed by Sellier. He was overtaken by Nishika the following lap but took back second place with a pass of his own in the final lap of the race to claim silver.
The ISU World Cup Short Track in Almaty comes to an end on Sunday, where medals will be awarded in the men’s and women’s 500m-2, 1000m and relays. The races will be live streamed on CBC Sports.
Quotes
I’m really proud of my performance today! My strategy going into this race was to be patient until the last two laps and then make a move to try and fight for the gold. I’m happy I could pull it off.
Courtney Sarault
I’m really happy to be back on the podium. It was a race with a lot of action and I made the right pass to get back into second place. These last few weeks I’ve had a lot of technical problems with my skates, so finally getting a result that I know I’m capable of definitely takes some weight off my shoulders.
Steven Dubois
Results
Women’s 500m
- Danaé Blais: 6th
- Rikki Doak: 7th
- Kim Boutin: 10th
Women’s 1500m
- Courtney Sarault: 1st
- Renée Steenge: 9th
- Claudia Gagnon: 13th
Men’s 500m
- Steven Dubois: 2nd
- Maxime Laoun: 6th
- Jordan Pierre-Gilles: 17th
Men’s 1500m
- Pascal Dion: 5th
- Félix Roussel: 7th
- William Dandjinou: 8th
Relays
- Mixed: 5th