Canada's Dandjinou strikes gold for first medal at short track speedskating worlds

Canada's William Dandjinou, right, pushes his skate over the finish line to win the final of the men's 1000 meters ahead of Italy's Pietro Sighel, left, at the World Championships Short Track skating at Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Sunday, March 17, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Peter Dejong

March 17, 2024 - 3:00 PM

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands - Canada's William Dandjinou capped his season with his first career worlds medal on Sunday, striking gold in the men's 1,000 metres at the short track speedskating world championships.

The Montreal native narrowly won with a time of one minute 25.534 seconds. Italy's Pietro Sighel (1:25.555) and Luca Spechenhauser (1:26.026) earned silver and bronze, respectively.

“Honestly, I didn’t expect to have this result today," Dandjinou said. "After the day I had yesterday – probably the worst day I could have imagined with bad results in the 500, 1,500 and relay – I’m just happy to be back.

"It’s not the first time I have a bad day. It’s my first world championships so I had to adjust to the calibre of the races. I wanted to make sure I was locked in for this last day and do my best. No matter what the results were today, I wanted to be happy with myself, so it’s just a blessing that I finished as world champion."

The 22-year-old Dandjinou captured six World Cup medals across five competitions this season, including three victories in the 1,500.

He had also won the national crown back in October and finishes the season ranked third overall in the Crystal Globe standings, thanks in part to top five rankings in both the 1,500 and 1,000.

Canada's women's relay team also came away with bronze in the 3,000 on Sunday. The quartet of Kim Boutin, Danae Blais, Rikki Doak and Renee Steenge finished with a time of 4:12.675.

The Netherlands (4:07.788) and the U.S. (4:08.061) earned gold and silver, respectively.

“There was a lot of action in the race, but we remained calm, and I thought we had good aggression," Boutin said. "So many different things happened in the race that the officials decided to keep the result as is.

"I think we were ready to have a great race, but we are very happy with the bronze medal. A third place is consistent with our other performances this season.”

Canada closed the world championships with four medals (two gold, two bronze).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2024.