Canadian Olympic silver medalist Kim Boutin of Sherbrooke, Quebec won three medals on the weekend in a World Cup short track speed skating event in Dordrecht, Netherlands. Among the three medals Boutin won was one gold medal, as she placed first in the women’s 500 metres on Saturday. In all, Canada won six short track speed skating medals (one gold medal and five silver medals).
In the women’s 500 metres on Saturday, Boutin had a first place time of 42.464 seconds. Arianna Fontana of Italy won the silver medal with a time of 42.756 seconds. Elena Seregina of Russia won the bronze medal with a time of 42.792 seconds. Boutin reached the podium by 20.016 seconds. Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands finished in fourth with a time of 1:02.480. Boutin finished in second place in the women’s World Cup 500 metre standings with 21520 points. Fontana won with 26000 points.
In the women’s 1000 metres on Sunday, Boutin had a second place time of 1:28.51. Minjeong Choi of South Korea won the gold medal with a time of 1:28.417. Schulting won the bronze medal with a time of 1:28.666. Boutin reached the podium by 0.725 seconds over fellow Canadian Courtney Lee Sarault of Moncton, New Briunswick, who had a fourth place time of 1:29.235. In the women’s 1000 metre World Cup standings, Boutin finished in sixth place with 13438 points. Schulting won with 28000 points.
In the women’s 3000 metre relay on Sunday, Boutin and Sarault teamed up with Alyson Charles of Montreal, Quebec and Florence Brunelle of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec to win silver. The Canadian quartet had a time of 4:06.102. The Netherlands won the gold medal with a time of 4:05.813. Italy won the bronze medal with a time of 4:10.251. In the World Cup women’s 3000 metre World Cup standings, Canada finished in third place with 19277 points. The Netherlands had the most with 30000 points, and were followed by South Korea, who had 19520 points.
In the women’s 1500 metres on Saturday, Sarault had a time of 2:22.043 to win silver. Yubin Lee of South Korea won the gold medal with a time of 2:21.931. Schulting won the bronze medal with a time of 2:22.075. Sarault reached the podium by 0.164 seconds over Kristen Santos of the United States, who had a fourth place time of 2:22.107. Schulting finished in second with 26400 points in the World Cup standings for the women’s 1500 metres. The World Cup champion was Lee with 28000 points.
In the men’s 500 metres on Saturday, Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Steven Dubois of Lachenaie, Quebec won the silver medal with a time of 40.023 seconds. Dajing Wu of China won the gold medal with a time of 39.878 seconds. Konstantin Ivliev of Russia won the bronze medal with a time of 41.728 seconds. Dubois reached the podium by 24.46 seconds over World Cup champion Shaolin Sandor Liu of Hungary, who had a time of 1:04.483 seconds. Liu had 25120 points, while Dubois was in seventh with 14194 points.
In the men’s 5000 metre relay on Sunday, Dubois, Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Pascal Dion of Montreal, Quebec, three-time Olympic gold medalist Charles Hamelin of Levis, Quebec and Maxime Laoun of Montreal, Quebec won the silver medal with a time of 6:46.963. South Korea won the gold medal with a time of 6:46.94 and Hungary won the bronze medal with a time of 6:47.076. Canada earned a medal by 7.984 seconds over China, which had a fourth place time of 6:54.947.
Canada was the World Cup champion in the men’s 5000 metre relay in 2021 with 28000 points. South Korea was in second with 22096 points. The medals for Hamelin, Dion, Dubois, Laoun, Boutin, Sarault, Charles and Brunelle will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
