Canadian women win relay gold, Laoun takes 500m silver at short track World Tour opener

The Canadian quartet of Florence Brunelle, Courtney Sarault, Claudia Gagnon and Danaé Blais captured gold in a chaotic women’s 3,000-metre relay final at the ISU Short Track World Tour opener in Vancouver on Saturday night.

Canada was sitting third in a tight race behind Italy and the Netherlands when the top two teams collided on the final corner, leaving the Canadian Ice Maples in the lead.

Canada crossed the line in four minutes 13.609 seconds, beating second-place South Korea by 0.272 seconds.

Italy’s Elisa Confortola was penalized for an arm block that took down Dutch skater Xandra Velzeboer, who took Confortola out with her as she fell. The Netherlands still finished third.

Canadian Ice Maples reflect on gold-medal performance in women's relay

"Winning the gold, first World Tour in Vancouver. It's incredible," Sarault told CBC Sports' Devin Heroux. "It was definitely a tough race, and we had to adapt a lot and kind of find chances to choose when to go. I think that we executed it perfectly and we were able to secure the gold."

Canada's women's relay team is missing Kim Boutin, who helped the squad earn bronze at the Milano Cortina Olympics and retired after the world championships in Montreal in March.

The relay gold was Canada’s second medal on the first day of finals at the Pacific Coliseum, following Maxime Laoun’s silver in the men’s 500m.

The two-time Olympian from Montreal finished 0.174 seconds behind Dutch skater Jens van ‘t Wout (40.551), with Turkey’s Furkan Akar taking bronze in 41.334 after South Korea’s Lee Jeong-min was penalized. Reigning Olympic 500m champion Steven Dubois of Lachenaie, Que., crashed on the final corner and finished fourth.

Montreal's Maxime Laoun captures silver in 500m at Short