Canadian Olympic silver medalist Kim Boutin of Sherbrooke, Quebec won the gold medal in the women’s 1000 metres at the final World Cup of the 2018-19 season from Torino, Italy on Sunday. For Boutin, it was one of three World Cup medals she won in Torino as she also won the silver medal with Samuel Girard of Ferland-et-Boilleau, Quebec, Charles Hamelin of Levis, Quebec and Courtney Lee Sarault of Montreal, Quebec in the mixed 2000 metre relay on Sunday and the bronze medal in the women’s 500 metres on Saturday.
In all, Team Canada won seven World Cup medals in the final World Cup short track speed skating race of the season. Steven Dubois of Lachenaie, Quebec won the bronze medal in the men’s 1500 metres on Saturday and in the men’s 1000 metres on Sunday. Cedrik Blais of Chateauguay, Quebec won the bronze medal in the men’s 500 metres on Saturday and Alyson Charles of Montreal, Quebec won the bronze medal in the women’s 1000 metres on Sunday.
In the women’s 1000 metres on Sunday, Boutin posted a winning time of 1:32.508. Charles’s third place time was 1:32.891. Min Jeong Choi of South Korea won the silver medal with a time of 1:32.814. Boutin reached the podium by .806 seconds and Charles reached the podium by .423 seconds. In the women’s 1000 metres World Cup standings for 2018-19, Charles finished in third place with 26640 points and Boutin finished in fifth place with 18000 points. The women’s 1000 metre World Cup champion was Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands with 40000 points.
In the 2000 metre mixed relay, Boutin, Hamelin, Girard and Sarault posted a second place time of 2:40.614. Russia won the gold medal with a time of 2:40.553 and the United States won the bronze medal with a time of 2:43.493. Canada reached the podium by 17.369 seconds over France, who had a fourth place time of 2:58.983. Team Canada finished in third place in the 2018-19 World Cup standings in the 2000 metre mixed relay with 25373 points. Russia recorded the most points with 25898 points.
In the women’s 500 metres, Boutin posted a time of 44.184 seconds. Martina Valcepina of Italy won the gold medal with a time of 43.942 seconds. Natalia Maliszewska of Poland won the silver medal with a time of 43.966 seconds. Boutin reached the podium by .057 points over Lara van Ruijven of the Netherlands, who was in fourth place with a time of 44.241 seconds. Charles finished in seventh place in the women’s 500 metre World Cup standings with 14897 points and Boutin was in 12th place with 11520 points. The women’s 500 metre World Cup champion was Maliszewska with 40800 points.
In the men’s 500 metres, Blais won the bronze medal with a time of 1:07.939. Dae Heon Hwang of South Korea won the gold medal with a time of 41.128 seconds and Shaolin Sandor Liu of Hungary won the silver medal with a time of 41.225 seconds. Girard finished in third place in the men’s 500 metre World Cup standings with 26434 points. Blais was in ninth place in the men’s 500 metre World Cup standings with 15248 points. The men’s 500 metre World Cup champion for 2018-19 was Hyo Jun Lim of South Korea with 31439 points.
In the men’s 1000 metres, Dubois had a third place time of 1:27.583. He reached the podium by .057 seconds over Thibaut Fauconnet of France, who had a fourth place time of 1:27.64. Hwang won the gold medal with a time of 1:27.257 and Ji Won Park of South Korea won the silver medal with a time of 1:27.494. Park was the men’s 1000 metre World Cup champion with 37520 points with Charle Cournoyer the top Canadian in eighth place with 16129 points.
In the men’s 1500 metres, Dubois won the bronze medal with a time of 2:13.309. He reached the podium by .063 seconds over Semen Elistratov of Russia, who was in fourth place with a time of 2:13.372. Gun Woo Kim of South Korea won the gold medal with a time of 2:12.823. Kyung Hwan Hong of South Korea won the silver medal with a time of 2:13.227. Dubois finished in second place in the men’s 1500 metre World Cup standings with 23040 points and Kim won the World Cup title for the men’s 1500 metres with 38000 points.
