Dandjinou dazzles with two golds in World Tour opener
The ISU Short Track World Tour, previously the ISU World Cup Short Track, is a new, six event series where Team Canada skaters, known as the “Canadian Ice Maples,” will race against the U.S., Korea, Italy and the Netherlands.
Not surprisingly, the Ice Maples are loaded with ten skaters that includes five Olympians, three Olympic medallists, and two reigning world champions.
William Dandjinou kicked off the all-new ISU Short Track World Tour with a pair of gold medals on Saturday in Montreal.
The 23-year-old raced to gold in the 500m, and 1500m. Dandjinou shared the podium with country-mate Steven Dubois in both races, as Dubois claimed silver in the 500m and bronze in the 1500m.
In the 1500m race, Dandjinou’s best time of the day came in the semifinal, where he won his heat with a time of 2 minutes, and 15.62 seconds to qualify for the final.
Dandjinou raced to a time of 2:18.61 in the final, beating out Korea’s Ji Won Park who won silver, and Dubois who won bronze.
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It appears that Park, who won the overall Crystal Globe in short track during the 2023-24 season, will have some intense competition with Dandjinou this season.
It was the same story in the 500m semifinal as Dandjinou won his heat with a blazing fast time of 40.008 in the semifinal. Dubois was not far behind after winning his heat with a time of 40.143.
Ultimately, it was Dandjinou’s day as he beat out Dubois by 0.096 seconds in the final to claim gold. China’s Xiaojun Lin rounded out the podium with his bronze.
Sunday brought more success to the Ice Maples, as the men’s 5000m relay team snagged the gold medal, and the 2000m mixed gender relay team secured bronze.
Dubois and Dandjinou, along with Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Félix Roussel dominated the final race of the afternoon, leading the pack for all but two of the 45-laps. The Canadians finished in 6:49.814, ahead of the China (6:50.641) and Netherlands (6:50.774).
Canada’s mixed gender relay team featured Dubois and Roussel, alongside Florence Brunelle and Kim Boutin. The team skated to a time of 2:47.875 to finish behind the Dutch (2:37.874) and the Koreans (2:38.031).
Thus far, the Canadians have brought their season total to six medals, including three gold, one silver and two bronze