Short Track: Kim Boutin skates to 1000m silver at Dordrecht World Cup
It’s a silver filled Sunday for Canadian short track speed skaters. Kim Boutin adds a 1000m silver to her weekend haul and both the women’s and men’s relay teams finish with silver on the final day of the ISU World Cup season finale in Dordrecht, Netherlands.
After claiming her first World Cup victory of the season on Saturday, Boutin returned to the ice to win silver in the women’s 1000m final. She led the race, but with just two laps to go the Quebec skater was edged out on the final turn. Boutin posted a time of 1 minute and 28.510 seconds, to finish just behind Minjeong Choi of South Korea (1:28.417) and ahead of Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands (1:28.666).
Also in action during the 1000m final, Courtney Sarault finished just off the podium in fourth position with a time of 1:29.235.
Canadians skated to two additional silver medals in the relay finals to finish a productive weekend. The women’s 3,000m relay final featured Boutin, Sarault, Alyson Charles and Florence Brunelle. They skated a time of 4 minutes, 6.102 seconds behind the Netherlands (4:05.813) and ahead of Italy (4:10.251).
Skating in the men’s 5,000m relay with Pascal Dion, Steven Dubois and Maxime Laoun, the legendary Charles Hamelin capped off his illustrious World Cup career with a silver medal thanks to an overall race time of 6 minutes and 46.963 seconds, just behind Korea (6:46.940). Hungary finished the race in third (6:47.076). This medal increases Hamelin’s career World Cup medal tally to 142 (58 gold, 42 silver, 42 bronze), which includes 84 in individual distances (37 gold, 21 silver, 26 bronze) and 58 in the relays (21 gold, 21 silver, 16 bronze). He has also claimed overall individual distance titles in the 2009-10 (500m), 2012-13 (500m) and 2013-14 (1000m, 1500m).
While his time on the World Cup circuit is coming to an end after 19 seasons, Hamelin is slated to compete at Beijing 2022 and the World Championships in Montreal, before hanging up his skates for good.
READ: Short track: Boutin blazes to gold, Sarault and Dubois claim silvers
Previously on Saturday, Canadians captured three medals in Dordrecht. 26-year-old Boutin picked up her first victory of the season after landing on top of the 500m podium with a time of 42.46 seconds. Boutin also broke the 42-second mark in Saturday’s quarter-finals, with her time of 41.9393 falling just short of matching the world record of 41.936 she set in 2019 in Salt Lake City. Also on Saturday, 21-year-old Sarault captured her third 1500m medal of the season, with silver. On the men’s side, Steven Dubois earned his first World Cup medal of the season with a second-place finish in the men’s 500m.
Sunday’s competition concludes the World Cup in Dordrecht. This weekend’s event is the last chance for short track speed skaters to secure Olympic entries for their country to compete at Beijing 2022.
READ: Get up to speed on training with Team Canada short track athletes
