Mathieu Pelletier, Félix Roussel and Rikki Doak earn first career World Cup medal
MONTREAL, QUEBEC – The Canadian short track team brought home a pair of medals on the second day of ISU World Cup Short Track in Montreal, with Steven Dubois claiming silver in the men’s 1500m and the Mixed Relay team brining home bronze.
Dubois (Lachenaie, Que.) won Canada’s first medal of the international season in front of over 2,000 speed skating fans at the Maurice Richard Arena on Saturday. The 25-year old bided his time in an action-packed 1500m final, making a pair of passes in the final laps to put himself into a podium position, before stretching out at the line in an attempt to steal second place.
After a long wait, the video review confirmed Dubois (2:14.312) successfully outstretched Korea’s Hong Kyung Hwan (2:14.313) by one one-thousandth of a second to win the silver medal. The race was won by fellow Korean skater Park Ji Won (2:14.152). Teammate Pascal Dion (Montreal, Que.) finished sixth in the distance after falling victim to a collision from behind with Belgium skater Stijn Desmet.
Canada’s mixed relay team followed Dubois lead and excited the hometown crowd once again later in the afternoon by capturing bronze in the 18-lap race.
The squad of Courtney Sarault (Moncton, N.B.), Rikki Doak (Fredericton, N.B.), Félix Roussel (Sherbrooke, Que.) and Mathieu Pelletier (Laval, Que.) finished the distance in 2:41.066, hanging on to a podium spot following a fall by the then first-place Dutch team. Korea (2:39.586) claimed gold in the race, while Belgium (2:41.025) finished second.
It marked the first career World Cup medal for Doak, as well as for Roussel, 21, and Pelletier, 16, who are taking part in their first-ever World Cup. Dubois, Dion and Claudia Gagnon also received medals thanks to their participation in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Outside of the medal performances, Canadian skaters reached three additional A Finals on Saturday.
Jordan Pierre-Gilles was the victim of a questionable missed penalty call during his 1000m final, settling for a fourth-place result after getting bumped by Dutch skater Boer Teun.
On the women’s side, Rikki Doak worked her through the morning repechage to reach the A Final in the 1000m-1. The Fredericton native had an unfortunate fall in the fourth lap and finished fifth, a massive improvement on her previous career best World Cup result of 17th in Dresden in during the 2019-20 season. Claudia Gagnon also made an A Final, settling for a seventh-place result in the 1500m.
The ISU World Cup Short Track in Montreal concludes tomorrow, where medals will be awarded in the 500m and 1000m-2, as well and the men’s and women’s relays. Tickets for the races can be purchased both online and at the door. For those not able to attend in person, the races will be live streamed on CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports staring at 1:30pm ET.
Quotes
It was a crazy race. I knew I had to be in front and made my way there, but got pushed back after about six or seven laps. I took a few laps to regain my composure – I knew I had the legs, I just needed to take a breather. I didn’t want to jump right back into the action, so I just watched what was happening. I knew the two Dutch skaters really used their legs and that I could pass them. And then I had some speed coming out of the final turn and just laid it all out.
Steven Dubois
“There was so much action and everything went by so quickly in the finals, but as soon as we crossed the line there was a sense of relief from all the stress we were dealing with throughout the race. It went really well and it was a lot of fun to get to experience a moment like that.”
Felix Roussel
Results
- Kim Boutin: 9th in 1000m-1
- Courtney Sarault: 9th in 1500m
- Danaé Blais: 11th in 1000m-1
- Claudia Gagnon: 7th in 1500m
- Rikki Doak: 5th in 1000m-1
- Renée Steenge: 17th in 1500m
- Steven Dubois: 2nd in 1500m
- Pascal Dion: 6th in 1500m
- Jordan Pierre-Gilles: 4th in 1000m-1
- Maxime Laoun: 8th in 1000m-1
- Félix Roussel: 24th in 1500m
- Mathieu Pelletier: 34th in 1000m-1
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.