Olympic roundup: What Canada did on Day 6
Last Updated: Thursday, February 18, 2010 | 6:44 AM ET
By John Molinaro, CBC Sports
Another day, another medal for Canada.
Marianne St-Gelais of Saint-Félicien, Que., is the latest Canadian to reach the podium at the Vancouver Olympics, winning a silver medal Wednesday in women's 500-metre short-track speedskating.
Canada now has six medals (two gold, three silver and one bronze) at the Games.
St-Gelais celebrated her 20th birthday in style, crossing the finish line in 43.707 seconds behind defending Olympic champion Wang Meng.
"I'm still the rookie, but I've made a name for myself," St-Gelais said.
World junior champion in the 500 in 2009, St-Gelais skated aggressively throughout the competition to earn the medal. She won her quarter-final heat and then finished second to Wang in the semis.
Canada had a shot at two medals in the final, but Calgary's Jessica Gregg was boxed out at the start and couldn't recover. Arianna Fontana of Italy won bronze.
Montreal's Kalyna Roberge was fourth in the Olympics four years ago but did not qualify for the medal round.
Hamelins in running
In the men's speedskating 1,000, Charles Hamelin set an Olympic record to win his opening heat. The Sainte-Julie, Que., native finished in 1:25.256. He is looking to hit the podium after having to settle for the B final win in the 1,500 earlier in the Games.
The record was broken in a later heat by Sung Si-Bak, who skated in 1:24.245. François Hamelin, Charles's brother, won his heat in 1:25.714 to advance to the quarter-finals.
The men's 1,000 will resume and determine medallists Saturday evening.
Charles Hamelin came back just over an hour later and put Canada into the men's 5,000-metre relay final, set for Feb. 26. Canada was just edged by China in the semifinal heat.
The Chinese team was timed at 6:43.601, only 9-100ths of a second ahead.
The Canadian team also includes Guillaume Bastille of Rivière-du-Loup, Que., Olivier Jean of Lachenaie, Que., and Montreal's François-Louis Tremblay.
Also on Tuesday, the Canadian women's hockey team breezed to victory in the quest for Olympic gold.
Meghan Agosta's hat trick and two assists paced Canada to a 13-1 thrashing of Sweden, putting an exclamation point on the final round-robin game for both teams.
Canada (3-0) now moves on to the semifinal round, with its opponent set to be the loser of Thursday's Group B match between Finland and the U.S.
Sweden, 2006 Olympic silver medallists, will play the Group B winner in the other semifinal. Canadian goaltender Kim St. Pierre turned away all four shots she faced through the first two periods, while backup Charline Labonte allowed the lone goal against — scored by Katarina Timglas — in the third period.
The blowout victory followed convincing wins over Slovakia (18-0) and Switzerland (10-1) at the Vancouver Games.
Speedskater Denny Morrison of Fort St. John, B.C., was 13th in the 1,000 metres after winning a silver medal in the distance at last year's world championship.
Other key Canadian results from Wednesday:
- In the women's downhill race, Whistler's own Britt Janyk was sixth and Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., Canada's best hope for a medal, finished 16th. The world's fifth-ranked downhiller was 3.69 seconds slower than American Lindsey Vonn, who won the race. Shona Rubens of Canmore, Alta., was 21st.
- Cheryl Bernard's Calgary curling rink remained undefeated after two games with a 7-6 victory over Japan.
- Chandra Crawford of Canmore and Montreal's Daria Gaiazova failed to advance to the semifinals of the cross-country skiing event. Gaiazova ended up 22nd, four spots ahead of Crawford.
- In men's cross-country skiing, Stefan Kuhn of Canmore was ousted in the quarter-final won by Russian Alexander Panzhinskiy.
