St-Gelais shines with 3 medals at short track World Cup

Canada's Marianne St-Gelais won the women's 500 meters at the ISU World Cup short track speed skating event Sunday to close the weekend with three medals.

St-Gelais finished the 500 in 43.059 seconds, was second in the 1,500 on Saturday and was a member of Canada's bronze-medal 3,000 relay team Sunday. She was the benefactor of a crash involving Great Britain's Elise Christie, who set the world record in the quarterfinals and was leading before sliding into the wall and getting her right skate caught in the padding. Christie was helped to the locker room afterward.

"You don't want to win because of that, but you have to be aware because it's short track," said St-Gelais, who has three Olympic silver medals. "You have to be smart. There's so many things you have to think about while you're skating. ... It's a gold, but it's not the way I wanted to have the gold, but it's still a gold.

"I'm really happy. I'm confident. We worked so hard this summer. ... I still want to have my gold medal at the Olympics, so I'm working hard for that."

Hamelin rebounds for podium finish

On the men's side, Charles Hamelin settled for bronze after teammate Samuel Girard crashed out of the 500 final. The pair were posed for a Canadian 1-2 finish with one lap remaining when Girard fell and Hamelin lost his footing as a result. 

"It's not the colour I was hoping for and I would have loved to share the podium with Sam," said Charles Hamelin, who nonetheless picked up his first medal this season. "After two tough weeks where I had equipment problems and had trouble with my confidence, I'm still gonna take that medal, because it's a reward for the good form I showed this weekend. My spot in the final today was proof that I'm back."

Girard, 20, won Saturday's 1,500. Sunday was the first time in four races this season that he did not make it to the podium, having also collected gold in the 500 and silver in the 1000 at last week's World Cup stage in Calgary.

"I was really mad after the race, especially because I caused Charles [Hamelin] to fall and we could have finished 1-2," Girard said. "But it's the first time it's happened to me in a final, and the truth is, it's going to happen to me again in the future. You have to live with it. In the locker room, my teammates all told me they were behind me."