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Francois Hamelin of St-Julie, Que. skates in the 500 meter qualifying session at the World Cup short track speed skating championships in Vancouver, Friday, Oct. 24, 2008.
Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press

Canada's short track team adds to medal haul

CTVOlympics.ca
By Kristina Rutherford, CTVOlympics.ca Posted Sunday, November 15, 2009 5:08 PM ET

What a way to end the World Cup season.

A day after they won gold, silver and two bronze at the ISU World Cup in Marquette, Mich., Canada's short track speed skaters followed up with a gold and two bronze medals on Sunday at the last stop on the circuit, bringing their weekend medal total to seven.

François Hamelin of Ste-Julie, Que., skated to a bronze medal in the 1,000 metres, and then added a gold medal in the men's 5,000m relay.

The Canadian team of Hamelin, François-Louis Tremblay, Guillaume Bastille and Jean Olivier took first in a time of 6:45.588, edging the Americans, who won silver.

Korea won bronze, finishing more than three seconds behind the Canadians.

All three relay teams were missing key members.

Charles Hamelin of Levis, QC., who won bronze in the men's 500m on Saturday, fell during the 1,000m quarterfinal earlier Sunday during a clash with a Chinese skater and suffered a mild concussion, said team leader Yves Hamelin. The skater was removed from competition, a decision made to opt on the side of caution, according to the team leader.

The Americans were missing Olympic team members J.R. Celski and Jordan Malone, and the Koreans were skating without three-time Olympic medallist, Lee Ho-Suk.

Winning gold in the 1,000m was American Apolo Anton Ohno, who finished in a time of 1:30.420 to edge Korea's Lee Jung-Su (1:30.450). Francois Hamelin finished in 1:30.506.

The Canadian was leading with five laps to go, but Ohno passed him back right away and Hamelin slid in behind.  

"I was hesitating to make a pass," Hamelin said in a release. "I was happy to be third, but at the same time, I wanted to go in front. There were so many things going through my mind."

Jessica Gregg of Edmonton, Kalyna Roberge of St-Etienne-de-Lauzon, Que., and Valérie Maltais and Marianne St-Gelais, both of Montreal, skated to bronze in the women's 3,000m relay.

In the semi-final, the women set a new standard, bettering the Canadian record by two seconds. 

In the final, Canada finished in a time of 4:10.825. China won gold in 4:10.785, while Korea claimed silver (4:10.786). 

"In the semi-final, we knew we had a really hard race, so we wanted to be aggressive as usual, and our plan was to stick to the Chinese at the start," Vincent told Speed Skating Canada. "In the final, the strategy was similar, and at the end, Kalyna even almost managed to beat them to the finish. We came really close to the gold.

"It's amazing for us, because we know we still have so much to work on."

On Saturday, Canada won four medals at the 500m distance, with Tremblay winning gold and Charles Hamelin taking bronze, while on the women's side, Roberge and St-Gelais won silver and bronze, respectively.

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Comments (1)

krazytea@hotmail.com
Nov 16, 2009 | 12:27 AM ET

Really exciting world cup event for the Canadians, Flou gets his first gold of the year, Francois Hamelin his first WC medal of the year. And the Canadians win a relay at last, one in which all of the countries were missing their major stars. Charles Hamelin, J.R. Celski, and Lee Ho-Suk. Hopefully Hamelin's injury isn't too serious... Let's go Canada
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