Canada’s Sarault wins bronze at junior short-track speedskating worlds

MONTREAL — Courtney Sarault won Canada’s first medal of the 2019 world junior short-track speedskating championships on Saturday, bringing home bronze in the women’s 1,500 metres.

Sarault, from Moncton, N.B., was the third-best skater in the longest of the individual distances, posting a time of two minutes 25.770 seconds that put her behind only Seo Whi Min Seo of South Korea (2:25.251) and Li Jinyu of China (2:25.320).

“I’m proud of my third-place finish,” said Sarault. “I think there were maybe a few moves that I could’ve done better, but that’s short track. Overall, I’m proud of myself and for what I accomplished.”

Sarault was in second place going into the final lap of the race but was passed by Jinyu, the 2018 Olympic silver medallist in the same distance, who made a move from the middle of the pack to take over the silver-medal position.

It was Sarault’s second career 1,500-metre medal at the world junior championships, having also won silver last year in Poland.

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Claudia Heeney of Waterloo, Ont., was fourth (2:51.275) in the B Final of the 1,500 metres, ending the weekend in 12th. Toronto’s Juliette Brindamour ran out of steam in the second running of her semifinal and finished in sixth place, putting her 17th overall.

Sarault finished eighth overall in the 500 metres, thanks to a fourth-place result in the B Final (44.944). Calgary’s Hee Won Son didn’t make it past the quarterfinals, ending the day ranked 13th, while Heeney crashed during the heats and finished 29th.

On the men’s side, Nicolas Perreault of Sherbrooke, Que., earned a fifth-place finish in the men’s 1,500 metres in 2:27.568, finishing just off a podium that included South Korea’s Chang Hyun Woo (2:26.047), China’s Wang Pengyu (2:26.443) and Italy’s Pietro Sighel (2:26.457).

William Dandjinou of Verdun, Que., who was eliminated from medal contention in the 1,500 metres after being penalized for making contact during an outside-to-inside pass in his semifinal, ranked 20th in the distance. Meanwhile, Calgary’s Matej Pederson skated to a 42nd overall placement.

Felix Pigeon of Saint-Pie, Que. and Dandjinou were both eliminated in the quarterfinals of the men’s 500 metres, finishing with an overall ranking of 15th and 17th, respectively.

Canada’s relay teams were also both eliminated from medal contention on Saturday.

The Canadian women finished their semifinal race against South Korea, Italy and the United States in second place, but were penalized upon review for an arm push against the Italians, which eliminated them from the competition. Meanwhile, the men finished a disappointing fourth in their battle against China, Russia and Kazakhstan, a result that earned them a spot in Sunday’s B Final.

The Canadian Press