Roussel wins 1000m gold; Brunelle earns first career medal with silver in 500m; Rikki Doak takes 500m bronze
BEIJING, CHINA – A trio of Canadian skaters – Félix Roussel, Florence Brunelle and Rikki Doak – reached the podium during the final day of ISU Short Track World Tour racing in Beijing, capping off a seven-medal weekend for the Crystal Globe leading Ice Maples.
Roussel (Sherbrooke, Que.) earned his first individual distance medal of the season on Sunday, winning gold in the men’s 1000m. The Sherbrooke native skated calmly and showed poise en route to his second career World Tour victory, having also captured 500m gold in Dresden last season.
A crash between race leaders William Dandjinou (Montreal, Que.) and Korea’s Park Ji Won with four laps remaining opened the door for the 23-year-old, who grabbed the lead back and coasted to the finish line (1:25.352). He was joined of the podium by Poland’s Michal Niewinski (1:25.480) and Great Britain’s Niall Treacy (1:25.598). The win helped Roussel move into fifth place in the overall distance rankings with 154 points, which are currently led by his teammate Dandjinou (180).
Félix Roussel“I’m obviously supper proud. It was a difficult summer. I was dreaming of hitting the ice without feeling pain while I was injured. To finally come back and earn this medal really filled me with pride because I know the journey I had to go through over the last few months to get here. I am proud of the way I skated. I showed that I had the legs and reacted well to the things that happed during my races. Crossing the finish line was an incredible moment. I never dreamed of being back on the podium this quickly.”


A pair of Canadian women followed up Roussel’s victory with a double podium in the 500m.
Brunelle (Trois-Rivières, Que.) broke through with her first-career individual distance podium, capturing silver (42.202) behind Dutch speedster Xandra Velzeboer (42.078), who was victorious in the distance for the third time in as many weeks. The 20-year-old Olympian overtook Velzeboer with an inside pass in the straight with two laps remaining, but the reigning World Record holder quickly took back the lead at the exit of the next turn and held on for the win.
Brunelle shared her important career milestone with teammate Doak (Fredericton, N.B.), who captured bronze with a time of 42.696. Fellow Canadian Kim Boutin finished just off the podium in fourth place (42.812).
Florence Brunelle“This has been quite the weekend! We started off with a world record in the mixed relay on Friday and yesterday was a more difficult day in individual distances, but we took gold in the women’s relay. Today, I was able to remain concentrated and filter out the things that didn’t go super well yesterday from my mind. It’s something that I feel I did well and I’m quite proud of that.”


After winning two consecutive gold medals to open the season, the Canadian men’s relay team was unable to replicate their success in Sunday’s final race. The quartet of Roussel, Dandjinou, Steven Dubois (Lachenaie, Que.) and Jordan Pierre-Gilles (Sherbrooke, Que.) were in the hunt for the podium, but an unfortunate fall by Dandjinou with nine laps remaining put them out of medal contention. The host Chinese (6:42.551) captured gold in front of their fans, ahead of Korea (6:47.064) and Netherlands (6:48.639).
The ISU Short Track World Tour continues next weekend in Seoul, before a pair of European stops in Tilburg and Milano to finish off this inaugural season. Canada sits atop the ISU Team Crystal Globe standings with 4,640 points, comfortably ahead of Korea (3,990) and Netherlands (3,149). William Dandjinou is leading the men’s rankings by 238 points, with Steven Dubois, Danaé Blais, Florence Brunelle and Kim Boutin all within the top-10.
Results
Women’s 1500m
- Courtney Sarault: 7th
- Danaé Blais: 9th
- Kim Boutin: 21st
Men’s 1000m
- Félix Roussel: 1st
- William Dandjinou: 4th
- Jordan Pierre-Gilles: 13th
Women’s 500m
- Florence Brunelle: 2nd
- Rikki Doak: 3rd
- Kim Boutin: 4th
Relay
- Mixed: 6th
- Men: 4th