Canadian Short Track Championships: Boutin & Dubois crowned champions as six skaters qualify for World Cup Racing Pool
Kim Boutin and Steven Dubois were named national champions at the Canadian Short Track Championships in Montreal as the event concluded on Sunday.
READ: Boutin & Dubois lead at Canadian Short Track Championships
Boutin finished atop the women’s overall standings with a final score of 40,000 points on the back of first place finishes in the 500m and 1000m events.
Courtney Sarault finished second overall with 34,000 points while Florence Brunelle took third with a score of 30,496.
Dubois took the men’s title with 38,000 points after finishing first in the 500m and 1000m races last week.
Pascal Dion‘s final score of 34,400 was good for second as Jordan Pierre-Gilles finished third with 27,920 points.
Boutin and Dubois were also the overall champions at the last Canadian Short Track Championships held in September 2019.
As the three highest-ranked skaters per gender, Boutin, Sarault, Brunelle, Dubois, Dion, and Pierre-Gilles are all automatically selected for the Special Olympic Qualification Competitions (SOQC) Racing Pool. This group of skaters will represent Canada on the World Cup circuit in the upcoming fall season.
The remaining three places per gender in the SOQC Racing Pool will be awarded in accordance with the 2022 Short Track Olympic Selection Policies and Procedures. A maximum of two places can be filled via bye requests from ill or injured skaters, such as Charles Hamelin who withdrew from the competition after suffering a concussion.
If no byes are granted for a gender, then the results of the Canadian Championships will be used again to select more skaters to the SOQC Racing Pool. The remaining spots — up to two per gender — will be discretionary selections of the SSC Olympic Selection Committee for Short Track, based upon such factors as past international performances and experience, training performances, and effect on team dynamics.
The 12 athletes in the SOQC Racing Pool will then head out on to the ISU World Cup circuit, for which the four stops will serve as the Special Olympic Qualification Competitions. To be eligible to earn the maximum quota of five women and five men for Beijing 2022, Canada must qualify for the relay and earn eight starting places in individual distances for the respective gender.
The four World Cup events will take place in Beijing, China (October 21-24), Nagoya, Japan (October 28-31), Debrecen, Hungary (November 18-21), and Dordrecht, Netherlands (November 25-28).
