Charles Hamelin of Levis, Quebec won a gold medal for Canada in the men’s 1500m short track speed skating World Cup in Seoul, South Korea on Saturday. For Hamelin, who won the gold medal in the men’s 1500m short track speed skating event at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, it was his first World Cup win of the 2017-18 season.
Hamelin posted a winning time of 2:14.179 in the final. Dae Heon Hwang of South Korea won the silver medal with a time of 2:14.209. J.R. Celski of the United States won the bronze medal with a time of 2:14.535. Hamelin reached the podium by 0.481 seconds over Samuel Girard of Roberval, Quebec, who was in fourth place with a time of 2:14.66.
Hamelin finished in third place in the World Cup standings in the men’s 1500m short track speed skating event with 16580 points. Hwang was the men’s 1500m World Cup champion with 2800 points, followed by Sjinkie Knegt of the Netherlands with 18496 points. In World Cup short track speed skating, the worst result of the season for each speed skater is dropped from the overall point total.
There was a second Canadian man who reached the podium in the final World Cup short track speed skating event of the season. Samuel Girard finished in third place in the men’s 1000m on Sunday with a time of 1:26.426. Shaolin Sandor Liu of Hungary won the gold medal with a time of 1:26.223. Hwang won the silver medal with a time of 1:26.365. Girard beat out Dajing Wu of China by 0.372 seconds for a medal. Wu was in fourth with a time of 1:26.798.
Girard finished in fifth place in the World Cup standings in the men’s 1000m short track speed skating event with 14681 points. Liu was the leader with 19342 points. Hwang was in second with 18621 points. Wu was in third with 18397 points and Knegt was in fourth place with 15438 points.
On the women’s side, Kim Boutin of Sherbrooke, Quebec reached the podium twice as she won silver in the women’s 1000m and bronze in the women’s 1500m. In the women’s 1000m, Boutin had a time of 1:32.662. Min Jeong Choi of South Korea won the gold medal with a time of 1:32.402. Yara van Kerkhof of the Netherlands won the bronze medal with a time of 1:33.246. Boutin reached the podium by 10.061 seconds over Suk Hee Shim of South Korea, who was in fourth place with a time of 1:42.723.
Boutin won the World Cup standings in the women’s 1000m short track speed skating in 2017-18. She had 26000 points to beat Choi by 6000 points.
In the women’s 1500m, Boutin had a time of 2:24.791. Choi won the gold medal with a time of 2:24.515. Shim won the silver medal with a time of 2:24.696. Boutin beat Marianne St-Gelais of Roberval, Quebec by .092 seconds for a podium spot. St-Gelais had a fourth place time of 2:24.883.
Boutin finished in third place in the women’s 1500m World Cup standings in 2017-18 in short track speed skating. She had 18496 points. Choi won with 30000 points and Shim was second with 24400 points. Boutin, Girard and Hamelin will be medal contenders for Canada at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
