Canadians shine with 8 medals; Performance by mix of rookies and veterans augurs well for 2010
The Vancouver Province
Mon 27 Oct 2008
Page: A42
Section: Sports
Byline: Terry Bell
Source: The Province

So far so good for Canada at the 2010 Olympic short track speedskating venue.

A trio of new faces and some familiar old ones powered Canada to six medals at the 2008 Samsung ISU short track World Cup Sunday at the Pacific Coliseum.

Add those to the gold and bronze that the Hamelin brothers Charles and Francois got in Saturday's 1,000 metres and the eight medals are a nice start for a team that's expected to do much of the work in helping Canada own the podium come 2010.

Michael Gilday, 21, of Yellowknife, NWT, got his first career World Cup medal, finishing second to Korea's Jung-Su Lee in the second of two 1,000-metre races. Right behind him in third place was Remi Beaulieu-Tinker, 23 of Alma, Que. It was also his first World Cup medal.

And earlier in the day Marianne St. Gelais, 18 of St. Felicien, Que., won her first World Cup medal with a second-place finish in the 500 behind Chinese star Meng Wang.

National team veteran Francois-Louis Tremblay, another Alma product, got a silver in the men's 500, just back of Korea's Ho-Suk Lee.

The women's relay team followed with a bronze and the men's relay team added a silver when American star Apolo Anton Ohno nipped Tremblay at the line with an enthusiastic crowd of 4,753 on its feet.

"I'm so excited right now," said Gilday, who had family and friends in from Yellowknife to watch him race. "It's a good omen I hope. This [medal] gives me a lot of confidence in this facility. We [the Canadian team] have been here, this is our fourth week in the last three months, so we've spent a lot of time here in Calgary, sorry, Vancouver.

"This is the home-ice advantage that we're talking about. Having the event here makes all the difference.

"I think this means we're moving in the right direction," Gilday said of the Canadian youth movement that stepped up and shared the world stage this weekend.

Gilday showed the savvy of a veteran skater in his semifinal, sticking a skate out in the final lunge to the line to nip J.R. Celski of the U.S. and earn the race's second berth in the final.

"I was a little scared," said Gilday. "The American passed me and I kind of started to panic but I knew I had to stay calm and go for a shot at the line.

"Winning the medal was great but that was probably the best moment I had today. I'd never been in an A Final [top four] and I'd set getting into an A Final as one of my goals for this World Cup."

St. Gelais got her first medal in her fourth World Cup race. Like the other Canadians here she competed at the season opener last weekend in Salt Lake City. She had two World Cups two seasons ago in Europe.

"I'm excited and really proud," St. Gelais said through an interpreter. "This shows that I'm part of it. I'm in the right game.

"It's a little bit more special," Gelais said of getting her first World Cup podium here at the Olympic venue.

Beaulieu-Tinker ended up with two medals, helping Tremblay and the Hamelins win the relay silver. Canada's women -- Valerie Maltais of Quebec City, Marie-Andree Mendes-Campeau of Montreal, Edmonton's Jessica Gregg and Kamloops' Jessica Hewitt -- finished third behind gold-winning China and the silver medallist Koreans.

The World Cup circuit now heads to Asia for races in China and Korea.