CANADIAN BRONZE
Speedskaters win medals
Canada’s shorttrack speedskating team added four bronze medals to its World Cup medal haul Sunday.
Charles Hamelin, Patrick Duffy, Kim Boutin and the women’s relay all won bronze medals on the heels of a three-medal day Saturday.
Hamelin, from Sainte-Julie, Que., was third in the men’s 500 metres, despite a false start. Hungary’s Viktor Knoch won the gold ahead of China’s Wu Dajing. The Canadian took advantage of a penalty given to Russian skater Semen Elistratov to make his way onto the podium.
“That may have been the weirdest 500 I’ve ever skated in,” Hamelin said. “I clearly had a false start, but when I realized they weren’t going to restart the race, I had to quickly get back up and I found myself five or six metres behind right off the bat. I took advantage of a battle up front to come back, and then the Russian pushed me by putting his hands on my hip and shoulder, and I had to hang on to the boards to avoid falling.”
“I take this bronze medal as a consolation prize for the weekend,” added Hamelin, who was sixth in Saturday’s 1000.
Duffy, a 23-year-old from Oakville, Ont., was third in the men’s 1000 to pick up his first individual World Cup medal. He finished behind winner Sin Da Woon of South Korea and Russia’s Victor An.
“In today’s final, I was aiming to put together everything that I had learned over the last few races and over the World Cup season,” Duffy said. “The planned strategy went out the window right at the start, when I found myself fourth, but I stayed calm, and was able to move up to third. I tried catching up to An for second place, but he had the better legs today.
“It’s still good to finally get that first podium.”
Boutin, a 20-year-old from Sherbrooke, Que., was third in the women’s 1000 behind Italy’s gold medallist Arianna Fontana and Japan’s Yui Sakai.
“This will give me a boost of confidence for the world championships,” Boutin said. “I would have preferred winning gold or silver (Sunday), because I know I can do better in the 1000, but I’m still happy with what I did today, considering I tried a new strategy by staying at the back of the pack to start the race.”
Boutin teamed up with Marianne St-Gelais and Kasandra Bradette of St-Felicien, Que., and Genève Belanger of Montreal to claim bronze behind China and silver medallists South Korea.
The World Cup marked Canada’s most successful weekend since the Shanghai stage in mid-December, when it came up with eight medals.