Brampton speed skater makes top-10 finish as Canada has two-medal day at short track World Cup

A Brampton speed skater finished in the top 10 at the short track World Cup this weekend as Canada took home two medals in one day.

Brampton’s Renée Steenge finished fifth in the women’s 1,500 at the World Cup stop in Beijing on Saturday while Jordan Pierre-Gilles won gold and William Dandjinou claimed bronze as Canada enjoyed a two-medal day.

Steenge wasn’t the only Canadian woman to make a top-10 finish on Saturday with Florence Brunelle, of Trois-Rivières, Que., placing ninth in the 500.

Pierre-Gilles, of Sherbrooke won the men’s 500 metres in a time of 40.711 seconds, beating Quentin Fercoq of France (40.875) and Jens van ‘t Wout of the Netherlands (41.280).

The Canadian trailed Liu Shaoang and Lin Xiaoju for most of the race but sailed to the front of the pack after the Chinese skaters collided.

“It was an exciting race today. A lot of people were surprised to see the Chinese skater challenging his teammate, but I kind of saw it coming and even told my coach about it before the race. My strategy was adapted a bit with this in mind. Obviously, their collision made my pass to the front easier and after that it was all but over,” said Pierre-Gilles

Montreal’s Dandjinou finished third in the men’s 1,500 with a time of two minutes 19.179 seconds.

Korea’s Kim Gun Woo won gold (2:18.934), ahead silver medallist Wenlong LI of China (2:19.009)

“I stumbled a bit during a pass and got cut off mid-stride. Despite all of that, I still managed to win the bronze. I’m proud of myself and I hope I can do even better tomorrow,” said Dandjinou.