Canada finishes final World Cup of calendar year with six total medals

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – Another double podium for Canada’s short track skaters – courtesy of William Dandjinou and Steven Dubois – helped bring the teams medal total from the World Cup in Seoul up to six.

Dandjinou (Montreal, Que.) upgraded yesterday’s silver to gold thanks to a dominant performance in the second men’s 1500m of the weekend. The 22-year-old grabbed the lead with three laps remaining and held on for victory (2:18.661), outstretching hard charging Korean Park Ji Won (2:18.698) at the finish line to secure the top spot ahead of the defending World Champion in the distance.

Dandjinou’s breakout season continues, with the young Canadian winning five individual distance medals from the first four World Cup stops of the season, including a pair of gold.

Fellow Canadian Dubois (Lachenaie, Que.), who won gold in Saturday’s 1000m, brought home the bronze in the 1500m-2 this time around with a time of 2:18.804. 

The 26-year-old ends the 2023 calendar year as the No.1 ranked men’s skater in the race to land the coveted Crystal Globe. His 683 points put him slightly ahead of Park (681), with Dandjinou rounding out the top-3 at 604 points.

Canada concludes the first half of the international season with 23 World Cup medals across four events. They’ll be back in action at Canada Cup 1 in Sherbrooke from January 26-28, before traveling to Europe for the final World Cups of the season, in Dresden, Germany (February 9-11) and Gdansk, Poland (February 16-18).

Quotes

“I am very happy with my day! It was an incredible way to end the two weeks in Asia. I didn’t believe I had any legs left to finish like that, but I’m more than satisfied. Plus sharing the podium with Steven [Dubois] in Korea, the capital of short track, is incredible!”

William Dandjinou

“Will [Dandjinou] had such a perfect race. As soon as I crossed the line, I was like ‘what a good race’. It was insane. I was definitely not expecting to be coming out on top [of the Crystal Globe standings] at the end of this part of the season. I know what I have to work on and there will not be too much turkey for me.”

Steven Dubois

Results

500m

Florence Brunelle: 6th
Rikki Doak: 7th
Renée Steenge: 18th
Felix Roussel: 6th
Jordan Pierre-Gilles: 15th
Maxime Laoun: 31st

1500m-2

William Dandjinou: 1st
Steven Dubois: 3rd
Pascal Dion: 9th
Danaé Blais: 8th
Courtney Sarault: 14th
Claudia Gagnon: 16th

Relays

Women’s: 4th
Men’s: 11th