Canadian women’s relay teams win silver; men’s team brings home bronze
MONTREAL, QUEBEC – Canada reached the top step of the podium twice on the final day of ISU World Cup Short Track action in Montreal, with Steven Dubois winning gold in the 500m and Pascal Dion bringing the same colour of medal home in the 1000m. Both Canadian relay squads capped off the day with medals, silver for the women and bronze for the men.
Dubois (Lachenaie, Que.) got off to a blistering start in the 500m final, overcoming a bit of contact and using a series of quick steps to move from the second starting positing into the lead. The native of reining Olympic bronze medalist in the distance never looked back, crossing the line in 40.345 seconds. He was joined on the podium by Korea’s June Seo Leed (40.434) and Italy’s Pietro Sighel (40.719).
It was the second career gold medal in an individual distance for the 25-year old Dubois, who last reached the top step of the podium in Dresden during the 2019-20 season. It was also the second medal of the weekend for Dubois, having also won silver in yesterday’s 1500m.
Dubois’ teammates Jordan Pierre-Gilles (40.920) and Mathieu Pelletier (41.785) also took part in the 500m A Final, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Not to be outdone, Dubois’ long-time teammate Pascal Dion won a gold medal of his own later in the day – the first of his career in an individual distance – earning the top spot in the men’s 1000m-2. The Montreal native stuck to the middle of the pack for much of the race, before making a move to the front with four laps remaining and held onto the lead (1:23.530), battling off hard a pair of hard-charging Koreans in Kyung Hwan Hong (1:23.598 ) and Tae Sung Kim (1:24.561).
Fellow Canadian Maxime Laoun (Montreal, Que.) was one of two penalized skaters in the 1000m A Final, which relegated him to a fourth-place result.
The Canadian team ended the day with a pair of exciting relay medals.
The women’s 3000m relay squad of Kim Boutin (Sherbrooke, Que.), Rikki Doak (Fredericton, N.B), Danaé Blais (Chateauguay, Que.) and Renée Steenge (Brampton, Ont.) finished second with a time of 4:09.493, placing them behind the Netherlands (4:09.217) and ahead of the Italians (4:09.623), in a closely contested final. The silver medal marked the first of World Cup rookie Steenge’s young career.
Dubois, Dion, Pierre-Gilles and Laoun capped off the day with a bittersweet bronze medal in the 5000m men’s relay, getting bumped onto the podium after a penalty eliminated second-place finishing Italian team. The Canadians originally crossed the line in fourth (7:12.997) after Dion slipped off the track while attempting a tricky late inside pass to move into first. The race was won by Korea (7:01.850), with Kazakhstan claiming second (7:07.972).
The ISU World Cup Short Track circuit continues next week in Salt Lake City, with races streamed live on both CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports digital platforms.
Quotes
This win feels really good! I was looking for this medal all of last season. I finished first overall in the 1000m rankings, but I never won a race, only silver and bronze medals. This summer, I worked on different strategies to make sure I had enough energy at the end of the race, and that really paid off today.
Pascal Dion
In the relay, I feel like we stayed behind the pack for a little bit too long. The Italians were pretty aggressive in making sure we kept our fourth position. We wanted to try to come back to the front but weren’t able to do so. With nine laps to go we were still in fourth, so we knew we were in a bit of trouble and had to try some things to move up. My pass was a bit of a roll of the dice, but if any of my teammates would’ve attempted a similar pass, I would have been happy because it’s the type of energy and confidence we want to have on the ice.
Pascal Dion
Results
- Kim Boutin: 11th in 1000m-2
- Courtney Sarault: 8th in 1000m-2
- Danaé Blais: 4th in 500m
- Claudia Gagnon: 13th in 1000m-2
- Rikki Doak: 17th in 500m
- Renée Steenge: 8th in 500m
- Steven Dubois: 1st in 500m
- Pascal Dion: 1st in 1000m-2
- Jordan Pierre-Gilles: 4th in 500m
- Maxime Laoun: 4th in 1000m-2
- Félix Roussel: 26th in 1000m-2
- Mathieu Pelletier: 5th in 500m
Resources
Speed Skating Canada and the Quebec Speed Skating Federation would like to acknowledge the support and financial contributions of partners such as the International Skating Union, Government of Canada, Government of Quebec, City of Montreal and Tourism Montreal.