Sarault paces Canada to women’s 3,000 m relay bronze

CITYnews halifax / By Sportsnet Staff and News Staff

Canada has won bronze in the women’s 3,000 metre short track speed skating relay event in Milano Cortina.

Danae Blais, Florence Brunelle, Kim Boutin and Courtney Sarault led the relay for much of the race before falling back to third.

Canada finished in four minutes 4.314 seconds, three-tenths of a second behind gold medallist South Korea. Host Italy was second.

The Canadians avoided going down after a collision with the Netherlands midway through the race.

A slight slip by Blais later in the race basically dropped Canada out of gold-medal contention.

For Sarault, it is her fourth medal in short track at these Winter Games, having won silver in the mixed team relay and women’s 1,000m, and bronze in the women’s 500 metre event – the most by a Canadian short-tracker at a single Games.

It is the sixth career Olympic medal for Boutin, tying her as Canada’s most decorated Winter Olympian with fellow short-tracker Charles Hamelin and long-track speed skater Cindy Klassen.

It is Canada’s 13th medal of the Games.