Brampton’s Renée Steenge wins relay gold on big day for Canadian speedskaters
Published February 13, 2023 at 10:27 am
Brampton speedskater Renée Steenge had a podium-topping performance on the final day of the season-ending World Cup speedskating event in the Netherlands.
Canadian skaters ended up with five medals overall on Sunday, including a gold medal won by Moncton’s Courtney Sarault in the women’s 1,000 metres contest. Kim Boutin of Sherbrooke, Que., and Fredericton’s Rikki Doak added silver and bronze in the women’s 500, and Montreal’s Pascal Dion earned his second 1,000 silver medal of the weekend.
But it was a four-way effort to bring home a gold medal in the women’s relay as Brampton skater Renée Steenge teamed up with Sarault, Boutin and Doak. The Canadians picked up speed with seven laps remaining and never looked back, coasting to their sixth medal of the season in 4:13.541.
Steenge also helped the Canadian women’s relay team take home silver at the short-track speedskating World Cup in December. The Brampton native took up speed skating around the age of 8-years-old at the Brampton Ontario Speed Skating (BOSS) club and was named Female Skater of the Year in 2013 by the Ontario Speed Skating Association.
In Sunday’s men’s 1,000, Dion worked his way to the front of the pack with two laps remaining but was unable to defend an outside pass from South Korea’s Ji Won Park (1:25.359) in the entry of the final turn, settling for a second-place finish (1:25.514).
Dion and teammate Steven Dubois finished the season in the top-5 of the overall World Cup standings, ranked third and fourth, respectively. Park was crowned the winner of the men’s Crystal Globe after topping the standings with 1,068 points.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2023.
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