Short track: Steven Dubois strikes 500m gold, Canadians capture six medals at the Poland World Cup
Pascal Dion skated to gold in the men’s 1500m final at the ISU World Cup short track speed skating event in Gdansk, Poland, on Saturday, and Team Canada skaters added another two gold medals on Sunday at the event as well.
Dion secured the victory in a time of 2:16.060, refusing Korea’s Jang Sungwoo (2:16.087) of the gold medal. Friso Emons of the Netherlands (2:16.178) completed the podium with bronze.
In the first men’s 500m final of the weekend, Steven Dubois climbed to the second step of the podium, posting a time of 41.467 seconds. Only Korea’s Seo Yi-ra finished ahead of the Canadian, winning gold in 41.451. Poland’s Lukasz Kuczynski (41.875) took the bronze medal on home ice.
Meanwhile, Sunday’s action saw Dubois take one more step up on the 500m podium, winning gold in the second race in the distance in a time of 40.303 seconds, narrowly beating Denis Nikisha of Kazakhstan, who took silver, and Poland’s Michal Niewinski, who finished with bronze.
On the women’s side, Kim Boutin took home the bronze medal in the first 500m final of the weekend. Her time of 43.190 placed her behind Dutch Selma Poutsma (43.033) and Belgian Hanne Desmet (43.046).
The Canadian medal haul continued in the relays and team events as well, with a bronze medal in the mixed-team relay event. Boutin, Rikki Doak, Maxime Laoun and Jordan Pierre-Gilles skated a time of 2:41.469. The Netherlands (2:40.737) finished in the gold medal position and Korea (2:41.357) completed the podium with silver.
On Sunday, Canada’s men topped off the event with a gold medal in the men’s 5,000m relay, skating the distance in 6:55.577, with a group of Pascal Dion, Steven Dubois, Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Felix Roussell.
READ: Roussel, Dandjinou race to short track gold at World Cup in Germany
Last weekend, Canadian short trackers welcomed the resumption of the ISU World Cup circuit in Dresden, Germany with six trips to the podium.
