Laval resident Steven Dubois came within 16 hundredths of a second of winning the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the first stage of the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup being held this weekend at Aréna Maurice -Richard, in Montreal.
In Final A, Dubois went the distance in 2:14.312, behind South Korean Ji Won Park. He also beat Kyung Hwan Hong, also from South Korea, by a thousandth of a second.
To earn this silver medal, Dubois had to come from behind when he had slipped to seventh and last place halfway through the race, following contact with a rival.
Montrealer Pascal Dion was also involved in a contact, with Belgian Stijn Desmet, with much more damaging consequences.
After a crash while in second place with just over five laps to go, Dion got up and finished the race, but in sixth place, in 2:54.242.
It was the first of two medals for Canada on Saturday. The other went to the 2,000-metre mixed relay team, which finished third in two minutes 41.066 seconds behind South Korea (2:39.586) and Belgium (2:41.025).
The Canadian quartet was made up of Rikki Doak, Mathieu Pelletier, Félix Roussel and Courtney Sarault.
In the men’s 1,000 metres, Jordan Pierre-Gilles missed the bronze medal by 27 thousandths of a second, finishing fourth in 1:24.532. His compatriot Maxime Laoun finished third in Final B.
Among the women, Sherbrooke’s Kim Boutin was excluded from the 1000 meters Final A after a fourth place in her heat, in 1:30.185. She was supposed to participate in the B Final, but she was not on the ice when the starting signal was given.
According to a Speed Skating Canada spokesperson, she opted out to keep her legs fresh for the women’s 3,000-metre relay semi-final later in the day.
The Canadian team has also qualified for the final of this event, which will take place tomorrow. The men’s quartet did the same in the 5,000 meter relay semi-finals.
Doak did, however, enjoy an advancement to the 1,000m Final A after being involved in an incident with Poland’s Natalia Malisewska during the second heat. Doak crashed early in Final A, however, and was unable to complete the event.
In the women’s 1,500 metres, Canada finished far from the podium, as Claudia Gagnon finished seventh and last in the A Final in 2:32.519. Sarault failed to compete in Final A and placed second in Final B in 2:34.045.
The event held this weekend in Montreal is the first of six on the short track speed skating World Cup schedule.
Four of these stops will take place before the holidays, including one next week in Salt Lake City. The city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, will host two back-to-back competitions in December.
The fifth and sixth stages will be held in February, in Germany and the Netherlands, respectively.
The World Championships are due to take place in South Korea in March.