Kim Boutin and Steven Dubois both won gold in the 500m distance on the last day of the ISU Short Track World Cup, Sunday in Dresden, while Cédrick Blais and Charles Hamelin finished fourth in their respective distances.
Boutin (Sherbrooke, Que.) won Sunday’s 500m in 42.328 after leading the race from start to finish. Dominating as ever, as she was in the day’s earlier rounds, she finished ahead of China’s Qu Chunyu (42.411) and Dutch skater Lara van Ruijven (42.458) in the A final to collect gold for the fifth time in as many 500m races this World Cup season. It was also Boutin’s ninth medal in 10 individual events so far in 2019-20.
In the men’s 500m, Dubois (Lachenaie, Que.) skated to the first individual gold medal of his career on the World Cup circuit when he finished the race in 40.530, ahead of Hungary’s Shaolin Sandor Liu (40.956) and Dutch skater Melle van’T Wout. Dubois now has earned three individual medals on the circuit this season, and six since his World Cup debut.
Cédrik Blais (Châteauguay, Que.) also qualified for the 500m A final and in spite of a fall,he finished, his best ranking this World Cup season.
Charles Hamelin (Sainte-Julie, Que.) also finished fourth, in the men’s 1500m(2), which ties his best ranking this season. The veteran skater also was fourth in the 1500m held in Salt Lake City to kick off 2019-20.
Danaé Blais (Châteauguay, Que.) and Claudia Gagnon (La Baie, Que.) both qualified for the women’s 1500m(2) B final, in which they respectively finished first and fifth.
The women’s relay team won the B final, ahead of Russia and Italy. This is the first time this season the Canadian ladies will come back from a World Cup stage withouta medal.
The Canadian short track team will be back in action next weekend at the final ISU World Cup Short Track of the season, from February 14-16 in Dordrecht, Netherlands.
“I’m really happy with how my day went and that it ended up with a gold medal. But quite honestly, what I’m most proud of is the way I skated. It was all very smooth and I made sure I had enough energy until the very end.”
“ It’s crazy! I won my first silver medal in Montreal and that was anincredible feeling, I didn’t think it could be any better than that. But a gold medal is way better! It’s impossible to describe the way I feel… It’s incredible.”
– Steven Dubois