Carl Savard - Passion/Speed/Skating
Canada completed the weekend of the 5th event of the short track speed skating World Cup circuit with more than a third of all the medals being awarded in Dresden, Germany. The distances this weekend were 1000m, 500m and two 1500m plus the team relay event which, if you're new to short track speed skating, consists of 3000m on the women side and 5000m for the men.
1000m
In the 1000m event, Marianne St-Gelais won gold while Valérie Maltais got the bronze medal. The two veteran skaters were joined on the podium by the young sensation from the Netherlands, Suzanne Schulting. Jamie Macdonald, also from Canada, finished in ninth place. No podium for the canadian men on this distance as Charle Cournoyer finished in fifth place by winning the B final. François Hamelin finished ninth while Guillaume Bastille concluded this distance in fourteenth position. The big final was won by frenchman Thibaut Fauconnet who, after a year off, is having a pretty strong season so far. Hwang Dae Heon of Korea, won the silver medal followed by J.R. Celski (U.S.A) with the bronze.
1500m (1)
In the first 1500m of the weekend, Kim Boutin from Sherbrooke, won the gold medal. She was followed by Rianne de Vries of the Netherlands and Charlotte Gilmartin of Great-Britain. The two other canadian women racing this first 1500m, Kasandra Bradette and Marie-Eve Drolet, finished in thirteenth and twentieth position. On the men's side, Charles Hamelin, won the distance by beating Hong Kyun Hwan from Korea and russian skater Alexander Shulginov. Samuel Girard finished in fifth position while Pascal Dion finished tenth on the distance.
500m
On the sprint event of the weekend, three canadian women battled their way up to the A final. At the finish line, Marianne St-Gelais finished first winning her second gold medal of the weekend. Jamie Macdonald from Canada won the bronze , while corean skater Kim Ye Jin finished second. Kasandra Bradette came in fourth place. Charles Hamelin of the canadian male team finished also fourth. The podium was occupied by the Liu brothers from Hungary (Shaolin Sandor with the gold and Shaohang with bronze) while Hwang Dae Heon of Korea won the silver medal. Canadian skater Pascal Dion concluded the distance in sixth position while Samuel Girard saw his rise being stopped in quarter-final, after breaking one of his blades at the start, because of a contact with Hwang Dae Heon.
1500m (2)
On the second 1500m race of the weekend, Valérie Maltais won the bronze medal behind Suzanne Schulting (Netherlands) and Noh Ah Rum (Korea). Other canadian women, Kim Boutin and Marie-Eve Drolet, finished fifth and twenty-first. No canadian skater in the big final of the men's portion of the event as Netherlands' star Sjinkie Knegt climbed on the highest step of the podium winning gold. Hungarian skater Csaba Burjan won silver, while Vladislav Bykanov from Israël got the bronze. The three canadian men taking part in this second 1500m of the competition, Charle Cournoyer, François Hamelin and Guillaume Bastille, finished eight, ninth and eighteenth.
Relay
On the team relay competition, canadian women won the bronze medal finishing third behind the Netherlands (gold) and Italy (silver) while the men's team finished fifth winning the B final. Russia, Netherlands and Korea finished in first, second and third place.
In the end, Canada finishes the event with more World Cup points than any other countries competing in Dresden. The athletes were fighting for ten podiums, Canada ends the weekend with nine medals out of twenty-six available. Next meeting will take place in Minsk, Belarus. Canadian athletes can thank the Quebec Speed Skating Federation, British-Columbia Speed Skating Association and the short track speed skating fans all accross Canada (See the Change of scenery at speed Skating Canada article) for getting the opportunity to compete next weekend in the last World Cup event before the World Championships in March.
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