She worked hard. She never gave up. Florence Brunelle came from behind in the 1000m final at the World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships to win a second world title in two days. An hour later, she repeated the feat at the relay.
Posted at 10:32
Updated at 10:46 a.m.
The 18-year-old Trifluvienne worked hard to savor this triumph. At the back of the field of five skaters for the majority of the race, Brunelle opened the machine with two laps to go.
She started from last position and made long overtakes through the outer lane. In the final meters, she found the energy to edge ahead of her rival Gilli Kim to clinch the title of world champion.
She completed her race in exactly 1:32.00, beating the South Korean by 72 hundredths of a second.
On Saturday, she also won top honors in the 500m.
In 2020, over these same distances, she had climbed twice on the second step of the podium.
Relay gold
An hour later, Brunelle achieved quite the feat by winning another gold medal, this time in the 3000m relay.
Brunelle and her teammates Ann-Sophie Bachand, Anne-Clara Belley and Ayisha Miao Qi got the better of their Dutch rivals. They stopped the clock at 4:19.363.