A trio of Canadians – Steven Dubois, Alyson Charles and Courtney Sarault – reached the podium on Saturday at the inaugural ISU Four Continents Short Track Championships in Montreal. Dubois won silver in both the men’s 500m and 1500m, while Charles earned silver and Sarault bronze in the women’s 500m.
Dubois’ second-place time of 2:21.475 in the men’s 1500m put him behind 2018 Olympic medalist Dae Heon Hwang of Korea (2:21.140) and ahead of American skater Thomas Insuk Hong (2:21.627). Teammate Charles Hamelin (Sainte-Julie, Que.) finished just off the podium in fourth position (2:21.668).
Hwang (40.695) was again victorious in the men’s 500m, with Dubois (40.799) coming second and fellow Korean Dagyeom Kim (40.923) rounding out the podium in third.
Canada also earned two medals in the women’s 500m, with Montreal native Charles (43.787) winning silver and Sarault (44.007) bringing home bronze. Min Jeong Choi of Korea was the gold medalist (43.684) in the distance.
Sarault (Moncton, N.B.) and Camille de Serres-Rainville (Montreal, Que.) both skated in the 1500m finals, earning fifth and seventh place results, respectively.
The inaugural ISU Four Continents Short Track Championships concludes tomorrow at the Maurice-Richard Arena, where an overall champion will be crowned following the 1000m finals and 3000m super-final. Medals will also be up for grabs in both the men’s and women’s relay events.
The top eight ranked skaters in each gender qualify for the 3000m super-final. Dubois is the top ranked Canadian after Saturday’s races, sitting second in the overall standings with 42 points, while Hamelin is fifth with 10 points. On the women’s side, Charles is in third with 21 points, Sarault in fifth with 18 points and de Serres-Rainville in ninth with two points.
CBC Sports will have live coverage of the races from 2:00pm to 6:00pm EST on Sunday.
“It was a pretty difficult day. The races were all back-to-back, during a pretty tough week of training, so I’m pretty happy to see that, despite all of this, I am still in good physical shape and can compete against the best in the world.”
“It wasn’t my day today, but I still pulled through with a bronze medal. My day didn’t go as well as I was hoping, but it’s a learning experience. I have to learn how to race when I’m not at 100%. I have to work on the little mistakes that I made in my races and try to better control my energy.”
– Courtney Sarault
“My first race didn’t go as planned, I made a lot of tactical errors. I had a plan, but I didn’t respect that plan maybe due to emotions or stress. It didn’t go as I had hoped, so my challenge was to come back with a positive mindset and attack the 500m. To skate like I knew I could skate.”
– Alyson Charles
- Courtney Sarault (Moncton, N.B.) : 5th in 1500m, 3rd in 500m, 5th Overall
- Alyson Charles (Montreal, Que.): 15th in 1500m, 2nd in 500m, 3rd Overall
- Camille De Serres-Rainville (Montreal, Que.) : 7th in 1500m, 9th in 500m, 9th Overall
- Steven Dubois (Lachenaie, Que.) : 2nd in 1500m, 2nd in 500m, 2nd Overall
- Charles Hamelin (Sainte-Julie, Que.) : 4th in 1500m, 7th in 500m, 5th Overall
- William Dandjinou (Verdun, Que.) : 19th in 1500m, 9th in 500m, 14th Overall