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The boys’s quick observe relay crew delivered Canada’s first gold medal of this World Cup season on Sunday in Japan, however girls’s crew star Kim Boutin continued to wrestle.
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Whereas the relay squad of Charles Hamelin, Pascal Dion, Jordan Pierre-Gilles and Steven Dubois topped their first podium for the reason that 2020 World Cup in Dordrecht, Netherlands, Boutin has now gone with no medal by way of two of the 4 World Cup occasions that will probably be held previous to the Beijing Olympics.
Dubois made a final lap go to say the gold for Canada forward of China and Hungary within the 5,000-metre race. And Dion began the day with one other bronze within the males’s 1,000m, repeating his end from final weekend in Beijing.
“I’m feeling nice and really completely happy in regards to the flip of occasions with my medal within the 1,000m and the one within the relay,” mentioned Dion, a 27-year-old from Montreal. “Within the 1,000m, I believe that if every part is aligned I’m able to producing good races and I proved that over the previous two weekends. On the worldwide degree, I’ve by no means been very assured in particular person races, however now I’ve seen what I’m able to. I labored on my weak factors over the previous two years and that’s exhibiting.”
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Itzhak de Laat of the Netherlands claimed gold within the 1,000m and Ren Ziwei of China took silver. Dion now sits atop the 1,000m World Cup rankings with 12,800 factors and is properly positioned to say an Olympic berth. Quota spots for Beijing 2022 are primarily based on the most effective three of 4 outcomes and a top-32 rating is required for the 500m and 1,000m, prime 36 for the 1,500m. The highest eight males’s and ladies’s relay groups qualify and Canada’s males are ranked third, the ladies seventh. A dozen blended relay groups will qualify as that self-discipline makes its Olympic debut, and Canada is ranked ninth.
Although denied a medal to date this season, Boutin nonetheless picked up priceless rating factors by ending fourth within the 500m in Nagoya and 20 th in Beijing, fifth within the 1,000m in Nagoya and 10 th in Beijing, in addition to fifth within the 1,500m in Beijing. She is ranked within the prime 10 at every distance.
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“It was a tough weekend for me, however I believe it was a giant improve in comparison with final week in Beijing,” mentioned Boutin. “I made two A finals, which proves that I’m able to skating among the many prime 5 on this planet. I’m slowly getting higher and higher and discovering my kind once more.”
With two Canadians within the five-woman 1,000m A closing, the prospect of a medal appeared good, however Courtney Sarault wound up fourth and Boutin fifth. American Kristen Santos gained it, forward of Suzanne Schulting and Xandra Velzeboer, each of the Netherlands.
The third of 4 World Cup conferences this season is ready for Nov. 18-21 in Debrecen, Hungary.
dbarnes@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/sportsdanbarnes
