Charles Hamelin captures 1,500m world title at short track worlds
Fellow Canadian Courtney Sarault earns 1st podium at worlds with silver in 1500m
Canada's Charles Hamelin secured the 1,500m world title at the ISU world short track speed skating championships Saturday in Dordrecht, Netherlands.
The three-time Olympic champion and 2018 world champion added the 2021 title by skating to a time of two minutes, 18.143 seconds.
Hamelin, of Sainte-Julie, Que., finished ahead of Dutch skater Itzhak de Laat (2:18.202) and Russia's Semen Elistratov (2:18.296).
"I was so confident in what I was capable of doing today, because of the training I did this season in Montreal and the training that I did since arriving in the Netherlands," said Hamelin. "The career experience I have gained definitely played a factor. It is one of the advantages I have over the competition and it's one of the reasons why I end up with a medal in the 1,500m.
"I knew how to manage my race today and legs today and was able to capitalize on that to win. It was still a big challenge for me - considering my age, the covid situation and the fact that I haven't raced in over a year. I think this win ranks fairly high place in my list of accomplishment; I would say among my top three World Championship medals."
Earlier on Saturday, fellow Canadian Courtney Sarault earned her first podium at the world championships with a silver medal in the women's 1,500m.
WATCH | Canada's Hamelin earns 2021 world title in the 1,500:
The Moncton, N.B., native skated to a time of two minutes, 37.089 seconds to split Netherlands' Suzanne Schulting (2:36.884) and Xandra Velzeboer (2:37.109) on the podium.
"Yesterday, I felt I got all of the nerves out and today I was really able to focus on what I do best. I'm really happy with my result," said Sarault. "I still have a little bit of learning to do, in terms of how to get into a certain spot at the right time. I had the legs today but was lacking a bit on a few things that could've maybe helped me get the gold. I felt like if there was one more lap, I could've closed the race better.
"I kind of forget what it was like to win medals and celebrate, so this was really special for me. I'm just really proud of myself. I worked really hard over the past year in training, so it feels really nice to see my hard work pay off."
You can watch all the action from the short track world championships, which stream live on CBCSports.ca all weekend, as well as on Road to the Olympic Games.
WATCH | Canada's Sarault grabs silver at short track worlds:
With files from Speed Skating Canada
