Canada's Steven Dubois, Pascal Dion win short track gold at World Cup in Montreal
Canada wins silver in women's 3,000m relay, bronze in men's 5,000m relay
Canadian speed skaters Steven Dubois and Pascal Dion captured gold on home ice on Sunday at the season-opening short track World Cup stop in Montreal.
Dubois won the men's 500-metre event for his second individual medal of the weekend, and longtime teammate Dion followed it up by topping the podium in the men's 1,000m in an exciting finish.
Dubois, a 25-year-old from Terrebonne, Que., got off to a fast start and crossed the line in 40.345 seconds in front of the roaring crowd at the Aréna Maurice-Richard. South Korea's Lee June-Seo won the silver medal in 40.434, while Italy's Pietro Sighel claimed bronze (40.719).
Fellow Canadians Jordan Pierre-Gilles (40.920) and Mathieu Pelletier (41.785) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Montreal's Dion won the 1,000-2 on Sunday with a time of 1:23.530, finishing just 0.068 seconds ahead of South Korea's Hong Kyung Hwan (1:23.598). It's the first World Cup gold medal of his career in an individual distance.
Fellow Korean Kim Tae-Sung finished third in 1:24.561, while Canada's Maxime Laoun missed a chance at the podium after being penalized.
"This win feels really good! I was looking for this medal all of last season. I finished first overall in the 1,000m rankings, but I never won a race, only silver and bronze medals," Dion said.
"This summer, I worked on different strategies to make sure I had enough energy at the end of the race, and that really paid off today."
Dubois won silver in the men's 1,500 metres on Saturday after also holding off Kyung Hwan Hong in a thrilling photo finish.
Canada continued its impressive medal haul on Sunday with a pair of relay medals to close out the competition.
Kim Boutin, Danaé Blais, Rikki Doak and Renee Steenge skated to silver in the women's 3,000m relay, which was followed by a bronze medal in the men's 5,000m relay for Dubois, Dion, Laoun and Pierre-Gilles.
The Canadian women finished second in 4:09.493, just behind the reigning Olympic champion Dutch team of Selma Poutsma, Suzanne Schulting, and Michelle and Xandra Velzeboer (4:09.217).
The bronze medal went to Italy's Elisa Confortola, Gloria Ioriatti, Arianna Sighel and Arianna Valcepina (4:09.623).
Dubois picked up his third medal when Canada was awarded bronze in the men's 5,000m relay after Italy was penalized for an illegal late pass and bumped off the podium.
The Canadians finished in 7:12.997, while South Korea's Hong Kyung Hwan, Lee June-Seo, Yong Jin Lim and Park Ji Won captured gold (7:01.850).
Kazakhstan took home silver, with Abzal Azhgaliyev, Adil Galiakhmetov, Nurtilek Kazhgali and Denis Nikisha finishing in 7:07.972
The next World Cup short track speed skating stop is in Salt Lake City on Nov. 4, followed by Almaty, Kazakhstan (Dec. 9-11, Dec. 16-18).
Watch live coverage on CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem and the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android.
