Canadian short-track competitors earn five medals at World Cup competition

GANGNEUNG, Korea, Republic Of — Marianne St-Gelais of Saint-Felicien, Que., and Montreal’s Pascal Dion captured silver medals to anchor a solid performance for Canada on Saturday at the ISU World Cup short-track speedskating event.

The two silver medals were among five earned by Canadian competitors in the event.

St-Gelais was second in the women’s 1,500-metre event while Dion won silver in the men’s 1,000-metre race. Kim Boutin of Sherbrooke, Que., finished third behind St-Gelais while Patrick Duffy of Oakville, Ont., took third behind Dion.

Marie-Eve Drolet of Chicoutimi, Que., earned a bronze medal in the women’s 1,000-metre race.

St-Gelais earned her sixth medal in seven events this season but heaped lavish praise upon Boutin.

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“I was proud of what Kim was doing during the race,” she said. “It’s a great podium result and I’m quite proud of what we’ve accomplished — especially considering this is the test event (for 2018 Olympics).

“We can have high hopes for the future.”

Boutin earned her medal after celebrating her 22nd birthday Friday.

“The race gave me a good boost of confidence because it’s my first medal since I stopped for a little while last season,” she said. “To be on the podium with Marianne, it brought back some good memories.

“We raced well and I’m happy about that.”

Dion was all smiles after earning his first-ever individual medal.

“In today’s final, I had nothing but fun racing and everything fell into place,” he said. “I was able to position myself well and I raced well.

“I think that was one of my best races ever. It was also great fun to share the podium with another Canadian.”

Duffy said he was surprised to finish third.

“It feels pretty great,” he said. “It was quite shocking to finish third, to be honest.

“I had to fend off three South Koreans over the last two laps, which was quite tough to do. I thought I was going to be consumed by the Korean train, but it ended up for the better. I think I just executed pretty well and I couldn’t be happier.”

Drolet was especially happy with her result given her expectations coming in.

“This is the first 1000 metres I raced this World Cup season, so it certainly gives me confidence,” she said. “My goal in this distance was a top-eight result so I can say that’s been fully accomplished.”

The Canadian Press