Short track speed skating: Kim Boutin adds gold and silver to her harvest

Kim Boutin and Pascal Dion were respectively silver medalists in the 500 meters and 1000 meters. The Quebecers are therefore on the podium for a second day in a row, because Boutin had won the 1,000 meters on Saturday in addition to having been decorated with silver in the mixed relay. As for Dion, he had won another silver medal in the first 1000 meters of the weekend.

On Sunday, Boutin added another gold in the women's relay with Rikki Doak, Rene Marie Steenge and Courtney Sarault. Danaé Blais and Claudia Gagnon were also rewarded, as they had skated in the previous rounds.

Sarault had a perfect day also winning the 1000m final. The other Canadian medal of the day went to Rikki Doak, third in the 500 metres.

Velzeboer too fast

Competition was fierce in the women's final of the 500 meters. Boutin found herself behind the Dutch Xandra Velzeboer from the start of the event. Motivated by the home crowd, Velzeboer quickly dug a gap of 5 meters to secure her victory while behind, the Sherbrooke native secured the money by finishing ahead of her compatriot.

In the women's relay, Boutin put her team in the lead with 14 laps to go. The Canadian team, which had three individual medalists on Sunday, never let up. It was about fifteen meters ahead that Boutin had plenty of time to celebrate before crossing the finish line ahead of the Hungarians and the Chinese.

Pascal Dion, Mr Constance per 1000 meters

In the men's 1,000 meter final, Pascal Dion was aiming for victory not only for the gold medal, but for the title of World Cup champion over this distance in this last event of the season before the worlds. To achieve his goal, the Quebecer had to beat the Latvian Roberts Kruzbergs and the South Korean Park Ji Won.

Dion took control of the race with a lap and a half to go, except that he could not counter the irresistible comeback of Park Ji Wong who made a long overtaking on the outside on the last lap. The Quebecer was still able to protect his second place when there were four skaters fighting to enter the lead in the final turn.

Pascal Dion

“I really tried to position myself to finish first, but I saw him (Park) go wider than me in the turn with one lap to go, explained the Montrealer to Sportcom. I tried to get in his way, but that made room for the Latvian and the Italian inside. It raced tight, but I'm really happy with the result.”

“I knew I had to have a perfect race to beat him. I lost my balance a bit down the stretch and that meant that I was overtaken.”

This silver medal still allows him to finish second in the standings final cumulative distance this season, 38 points behind the winner of the day.

“Since last year, I have taken part in ten A finals in the 1000 meters and I am happy to have achieved this feat!”

Steven Dubois won the B final, which gave him sixth place.

The Canadian men's relay formed by William Dandjinou, Steven Dubois, Maxime Laoun and Félix Roussel finished second in the final B, good for sixth place. Canada still finished at the top of this discipline in the final World Cup standings, 10 points ahead of the South Koreans, gold medalists on Sunday.

“(This poor performance) before the world championships, it just realigns everything and we just want to win even more,” concluded Dion, reigning Olympic champion in this event.

The Short Track Speed ​​Skating World Championships will be held in Rotterdam , in the Netherlands, from March 15 to 17.

Other Quebec results

Men's 500m

7- Félix Roussel

15- Maxime Laoun

16- Jordan Pierre-Gilles

1000 m Women

14 – Claudia Gagnon

17- Danaé Blais

1000 m Men

21- William Dandjinou