Canadian women's, men's relay teams strike short track gold at World Cup opener in Montreal

Canada's short track speed skating team earned its first gold medals of the World Cup season in Montreal on Sunday, with both the women's and men's relay teams securing victories in the last two races of the three-day event.

While the Canadian team as a whole had secured three individual medals throughout the weekend at the World Cup opener, they were still searching for their first gold with just the women's 3,000- and men's 5,000-metre relays to go.

The women's quartet went first after being held off the podium in all individual events up until that point, including Courtney Sarault of Moncton, N.B., narrowly missing the podium in the 1,000m competition earlier on Sunday.

Danaé Blais of Châteauguay, Que., raised her arm in celebration at the finish line, clocking a time of four minutes 7.935 seconds.

As confident as the Canadians were that they had won, their winning time was just 0.013 seconds ahead of the silver-medal winning United States and 0.045 seconds ahead of third-place Netherlands.

The other members of the Canadian women's team were Florence Brunelle of Trois-Rivières, Que., and Montreal's Renée Marie Steenge.

The Canadian men's relay squad comprised of William Dandjinou and Pascal Dion of Montreal, Steven Dubois of Terrebonne, Que., and Jordan Pierre-Gilles of Sherbrooke, Que., equalled their teammates just minutes later, securing gold with a time of 6:55.656.

South Korea took silver with a time of 6:55.895, while Japan (6:58.854) earned bronze after the Chinese team crashed mid-race, effectively taking them out of the running.

The Canadian men are the reigning Olympic champions in the event, with Dubois, Pierre-Gilles and Dion combining with Maxime Laoun and the retired Charles Hamelin to win gold at