Brunelle wins 500m gold and 1500m silver; Bachand brings home 500m silver
DRESDEN, GERMANY – Florence Brunelle and Ann-Sophie Bachand both reached the ISU World Junior Short Track Championships in Dresden on Saturday.
Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, Que.) captured gold in the 500m and silver in the 1500m, bringing her career medal count at the World Junior Championships to seven. It marked a successful return to competition for the 19-year old Olympian, who was taking part in her first international event since last season’s World Championships.
Meanwhile, Bachand (Sherbrooke, Que.) won the third World Junior medal of her young career, finishing one spot behind teammate Brunelle in the 500m for the second consecutive year.
Brunelle overcame a tough outside starting position to win the 500m convincingly. She pounced from third to first with two laps remaining and never looked back, crossing the line in 44.827 in seconds. She was joined on the podium by teammate Bachand (45.273), who was in second place from start to finish, and China’s Song Jiarui (45.360), who won bronze.
In the 1500m, Brunelle raced from the front of the pack for much of the A Final, before being overtaken near the very end. Korea’s Gilli Kim – winner of four individual distance World Cup medals so far this season – made a move with four laps remaining, passing several skaters from the outside, including Brunelle, to move from fourth to first (2:36.639). The Canadian settled for a second-place result (2:36.786), ahead of Korea’s Songmi Oh (2:36.873).
On the men’s side, Samuel Bureau (Montreal, Que.) and Mathieu Pelletier (Laval, Que.) were both in medal contention on Saturday, but were unable to crack the podium. Bureau was fourth in the 500m, while Pelletier finished seventh in the 1500m.
The ISU World Junior Short Track Championships concludes on Sunday with medal races in the men’s and women’s 1000m and relays.
Quotes
“I had a lot of fun skating today and I’m very happy that I was able to perform and get great results, all while having fun.”
Florence Brunelle
“It was a very emotional day. There were some positives and some negatives, but it ended well with a silver medal in the 500m.”
Ann-Sophie Bachand
Results
Women’s 1500m
- Florence Brunelle: 2nd
- Ayisha Qi Miao: 9th
- Ann-Sophie Bachand: 21st
Women’s 500m
- Florence Brunelle: 1st
- Ann-Sophie Bachand: 2nd
- Ayisha Qi Miao: 7th
Men’s 1500m
- Mathieu Pelletier: 7th
- Victor Roy-Lafrance: 10th
- Alexis Belanger: 23rd
Men’s 500m
- Samuel Bureau: 4th
- Victor Roy-Lafrance: 6th
- Mathieu Pelletier: 58th