Canadian Olympic silver medalist Kim Boutin of Sherbrooke, Quebec won two gold medals this past weekend at a Short Track Speed Skating World Cup in Montreal, Quebec. Boutin won the gold medal in the women’s 1000 metres on Saturday and the gold medal in the women’s 500 metres on Sunday. It was two of four medals won by Canadians this past weekend. Courtney Lee Sarault of Valleyfield, Quebec won the silver medal in the women’s 1000 metre event on Sunday and Canada won the bronze medal in the women’s 3000 metre relay on Sunday.
In the women’s 1000 metre event on Saturday, Boutin won the gold medal with a time of 1:30.827. Whi Min Seo of South Korea won the silver medal with a time of 1:31.268. Kexin Fan of China won the bronze medal with a time of 1:31.343. Boutin reached the podium by 1.67 seconds over Martina Valcepina of Italy, who was in fourth place with a time of 1:32.497.
In the women’s 500 metre event on Saturday, Boutin had a gold medal time of 42.568 seconds. Valcepina won the silver medal with a time of 42.659 seconds. Natalia Maliszewska of Poland won the bronze medal with a time of 42.779 seconds. Boutin reached the podium by 0.428 seconds over Canadian Alyson Charles of Montreal, Quebec, who had a fourth place time of 42.996 seconds.
In the women’s 1000 metre event on Sunday, Sarault had a second place time of 1:30.959. Yu Tong Han of China won the gold medal with a time of 1:30.712. Ekaterina Efremenkova of Russia won the bronze medal with a time of 1:31.125. Sarault reached the podium by 0.273 seconds over Yuting Zhang of China, who had a fourth place time of 1:31.232.
In the women’s 3000 metre relay, Boutin, Sarault and Charles teamed with Danae Blais of Chateauguay, Quebec to win bronze. They posted a third place time of 4:09.513 to beat Italy by 0.939 seconds, who had a fourth place time of 4:10.452. China won the gold medal with a time of 4:09.184. Russia had the silver medal with a time of 4:09.355.
In the 2019 women’s 1000 metres World Cup short track speed skating standings, Boutin is in fourth place with 1000 points and Sarault is in eighth with 800 points. Han leads with 18000 points.
In the 2019 women’s 500 metres World Cup short track speed skating standings, Boutin is in second with 20000 points. Valcepina leads with 23120 points.
In the 2019 women’s 3000 metre relay World Cup short track speed skating standings, Canada is in second place with 12800 points. China leads with 20000 points.
The medals for Boutin, Sarault, Charles and Blais will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. Boutin won silver in the women’s 1000 metres, and bronze in the women’s 500 metres and 1500 metres in women’s short track speed skating at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
