Canada's Michael Gilday (R) and Travis Jayney of the U.S. skate during the men's 1000 meters qualification race at the ISU World Cup Short Track speed skating competitions in Montreal, October 22, 2010. REUTERS/Mathieu BelangerMATHIEU BELANGER/Reuters
The Canadian women came up big Friday at the first event of the short-track speedskating World Cup season.
Marianne St-Gelais of St. Felicien, Que., easily dominated both of her 1,000-metre races to advance, while Marie-Eve Drolet of Laterriere, Que., and Valerie Lambert of Sherbrooke, Que., also qualified for Saturday's quarter-final.
Valerie Maltais of La Baie, Que., won her heat in the 1,500 metres to move on to the semifinals. Jessica Hewitt of Kamloops, B.C., and Montreal's Marie-Andree Mendes-Campeau also advanced.
St-Gelais, Maltais and Lambert also moved on in the 500 metres.
On the men's side, Yellowknife's Michael Gilday qualifed for the quarter-final of the 1,000. Francois Hamelin of Ste-Julie, Que., will have to compete in Saturday's repechage to join Gilday in the next round.
Charles Hamelin, also of Ste-Julie, and Francois-Louis Tremblay of Boucherville, Que., both advanced in the 1,500, but Guillaume Bastille of Riviere-du-Loup, Que., will have to skate in the repechage.
In the men's 500, Gilday, Tremblay and Charles Hamelin, the Olympic gold medallist in the event, advanced to the quarters.
Double Olympic gold medallist Lee Jung-Su and his South Korean teammates are skipping the meet in Montreal and next week's in Quebec City while they sort out a controversy over race-fixing and favouritism back home.