Montreal’s William Dandjinou won gold in the men’s 1000m, Florence Brunelle won silver in the women’s 500m and the Canadian mixed relay won the bronze medal.
Dandjinou found himself in front of all his opponents with four laps to go and he increased his lead during each lap to finish the race in 1:24.548.
Dutchman Jens van ‘T Wout (+0.193) and South Korean Jang Sungwoo (+0.295) won silver and bronze, respectively.
“I didn’t want Jens [van ‘t Wout] had the advantage too early, so I managed to take his lead. And then Roberts [Kruzbergs] happened outside of me, which was sort of to my advantage. I knew he was going to put pressure and that the fast pace would prevent further overtaking, Dandjinou analyzed in a press release.
“I saw we had three or four laps to go, and I knew Kruzbergs was slowing down, so the people behind might be slowed down by him and he wouldn’t be able to come back immediately. So, I thought maybe this was the best time to pull out all the stops to avoid them all coming back to me. Maybe it was less risky to wait because they still had three laps to come back. But I didn’t feel comfortable waiting any longer.”
Brunelle took the lead from the start of the race, but the skater from Trois-Rivières was overtaken by American Kristen Santos-Griswold after a little less than two laps.
The Quebecer held on to her position behind the United States skater to finish 0.149 seconds from first place. Belgian Hanne Desmet won bronze (+0.229).
Brunelle and Dandjinou also teamed up with Kim Boutin, from Sherbrooke, and Steven Dubois, from Lachenaie, to go for a bronze medal in the mixed relay.
Although they were the fourth team to cross the finish line (+0.477), the Canadians were promoted to a place on the podium after the Dutch team was penalized for an infraction at the expense of the Canadians.
The South Koreans took gold in 2:38.036, narrowly ahead of the Chinese (+0.015).
At the end of the fourth of six stages of the World Tour, Dandjinou has a comfortable lead in the race for the Crystal Globe among men. The Quebecer has 912 points and his closest pursuer, the South Korean Park Jiwon, has 586.
Canadians at the top of the rankings
“I’m super happy with my performance this weekend. It ends the World Tour in Asia well. Conditions are rarely optimal abroad, but the support of my team greatly helped me perform. I’m happy with the experience, my results and the team’s results too. It’s really cool,” said Dandjinou.
The Canadians still lead the Crystal Globe team standings with a total of 6,116 points, far ahead of the South Koreans, who are 668 points behind. The Dutch, in third position, are 1996 points behind.
The last two stages on the World Circuit will take place in 2025, in Tilburg in the Netherlands, from February 7 to 9, and in Milan in Italy, from February 14 to 16.
