Short track speed skating coach Sebastien Cros is hoping Canada can improve on its individual medal haul as the world’s top skaters return to Maurice Richard Arena for a second ISU World Cup event from Friday to Sunday.
Cros called the individual results at the season-opening World Cup event in Montreal last weekend “a little disappointing.”
“If we talk about numbers, if we want to be the top country, then we should have more medals than everybody else, and that would be a perfect weekend,” said Cros with a smile.
Canada captured gold in the men’s and women’s relays to cap the weekend on a positive note.
Live coverage of the second World Cup event is available on Saturday and Sunday starting at 1:32 p.m. ET
Individually, the team collected three medals in eight events as Steven Dubois took silver in the first men’s 1,000-metre event, William Dandjinou earned bronze in the second, and Felix Roussel won silver in the men’s 500. South Korea led all countries with seven solo medals.
Canadian national champion Courtney Sarault had a fourth-place finish in the women’s 1,000 but said she wasn’t feeling great physically and “wouldn’t say it was my best competition ever.”
Danae Blais — who skated Canada to gold in the final laps of the women’s relay — said she separates that triumph from her individual races.
“Individually I have a lot to work on,” said Blais, who had her best result in the 1,500, where she came sixth. “But I’m confident that I can work on that and arrive strong [this weekend].”
Cros stated they would try to correct the “little mistakes” and “little details” that made the difference, using video to point out some tweaks certain skaters could make.
He still expects his team to produce even though it’s early in the season.
“It’s not the time to peak, but we’re still in a state of mind where we want to do well in every competition,” said Cros. “Of course, the world championships are more important, but I still see that some of our athletes are not yet at 100 per cent [of their abilities].
