Short Track: Kim Boutin and Canadian relay teams win gold at Kazakhstan World Cup
After collecting a medal of every colour on Saturday, Canadian speed skaters raced to three gold, one silver and one bronze medal on Sunday at the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Kim Boutin led the medal haul, winning the only individual gold medal of the day and helping the women’s relay team to gold. In the women’s 500m final, Boutin finished in 43.020 seconds to defeat Dutch start Suzanne Schulting. Schulting crossed the line in 43.115 for silver. American Kristen Santos-Griswold (43.254) completed the podium in the bronze medal position.
Fellow Canadian Rikki Doak (43.576) was fifth.
Boutin teamed up with Doak, Claudia Gagnon and Courtney Sarault to capture gold in the women’s 3000m relay final. The Canadians clocked a time of 4:10.479, ahead of the Dutch team (4:16.038). South Korea took bronze (4:22.605).
In the men’s 5000m relay final, the team of Steven Dubois, Maxime Laoun, Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Felix Roussel posted 6:56.201 to climb the top step of the podium. They finished ahead of World Cup season leaders Korea (6:56.453). Japan completed the podium with bronze in 6:57.289.
Sarault added a silver medal in the women’s 1500m final for her second individual medal of the weekend. She skated a time of 2 minutes and 26.752 seconds. Belgium’s Hanne Desmet (2:26.692) won gold and Germany’s Anna Seidel (2:27.036) captured the bronze medal. Gagnon finished in sixth position.
Also capturing his second individual medal of the weekend, Dion skated to bronze in the men’s 1500m event. His time of 2 minutes and 20.545 seconds put him ahead of teammate William Dandjinou who finished off the podium in fourth.
Gold and silver went to a pair of Korean skaters. Park Ji-Won (2:20.340) and Hong Kyung-Hwan (2:20.400) took gold and silver, respectfully.
Three podiums climbed on Saturday
Canada collected a medal of every colour on the first day of the ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup stop in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Courtney Sarault won gold in the women’s 1000m, while Pascal Dion and Jordan Pierre-Gilles won silver and bronze respectively in the men’s 1000m final.
Sarault crossed the finish line in 1 minute and 32.671 seconds to finish ahead of Korean Shim Suk-hee (1:32.770) and American Corinne Stoddard (1:33.025) on the podium.
The 22-year-old Olympian, won her first individual career gold medal on the World Cup circuit and dominated the competition from start to finish. She set the best time on the track in each of her races through the preliminary round, quarterfinals, semifinals and eventually in the A final.
Sarault notably clocked a time of 1 minute and 28.882 seconds in the quarterfinals, the best time of the entire competition.
Kim Boutin finished 4th in the B final following a penalty.
In the men’s 1000m final, Dion clocked 1 minute and 26.147 seconds to secure the silver medal, just ahead of his teammate Pierre-Gilles (1:26.347) who snatched the bronze. Dutchman Jens van ‘t Wout (1:26.074) finished ahead of the Canadians for the gold medal.
In other results, Danaé Blais finished in fifth position in the women’s 1500m A final. William Dandjinou obtained the best 1500m Canadian men’s result with fourth position in the B final.
Competition concludes tomorrow with the finals in the women’s and men’s relay, 500m and second 1500m final.
