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Courtney Sarault won the women's overall title and Canada clinched its second straight team Crystal Globe at the short track World Tour finale on Sunday in Dordrecht, Netherlands.
The Moncton native skated to silver in the 1,500 metres before winning the 500m, giving her nine medals (five gold, three silver and a bronze) across the four World Tour stops.
The 25-year-old becomes the first Canadian woman to capture the overall World Tour title, earning the crown with 980 points — 150 more than runner-up Corrine Stoddard of the United States.
WATCH | Sarault caps off 1st Crystal Globe season with 500m gold:Courtney Sarault took the 500-metre gold medal at Sunday's World Tour stop in Dordrecht, Netherlands, teammate Florence Brunelle captured bronze.Sarault, the reigning Canadian champion, edged Stoddard for the 500m gold medal by 0.304 seconds with a time of 42.695.
Sarault started from second position and caught reigning world champion Xandra Velzeboer of the Netherlands by surprise with an outside pass on the third lap for first place.
Florence Brunelle of Trois-Rivières, Que., ultimately finished 0.028 seconds ahead of Velzeboer for bronze in 43.031.
"In the 500m, I knew it was my last race so I wanted to give it everything I had and leave it all on the ice," Sarault said. "I found myself beside Xandra off the start and I just carried my speed on the outside and took it from there, and it worked out pretty great for me."
Sarault also won the women's 1,000m title with 300 points on Saturday for her first career Crystal Globe, finishing 70 ahead of Belgium's Hanne Desmet after taking the final race.
WATCH | Sarault emotional after 500m victory:Courtney Sarault of Moncton spoke after winning Sunday's 500-metre short track World Tour race, having already secured the Crystal Globe overall title in Dordrecht, Netherlands.The Canadian Ice Maples, who took the inaugural team title last year, repeated as champions with 31 total medals (15 gold, seven silver and nine bronze). They racked up 5,656 points to finish well ahead of the second-place Dutch Lions (4,807).
"We knew we were strong coming into the season and that it was our title to defend. We wanted to fuel off that, without putting too much pressure on ourselves," Sarault said. "We were very supportive of each other the entire way.
"We’re super happy and it’s going to be a good night of celebrating for sure.”
The title completed a Crystal Globe sweep, as Montreal's William Dandjinou secured the men’s overall title on Saturday for the second consecutive year.
The Canadians competing in Dordrecht brought photos of injured teammates Kim Boutin and Maxime Laoun onto the ice for the team trophy presentation.
“Some of our teammates that contributed to the team Crystal Globe were not here today, but we felt it was important that they were represented and on the stage with us,” Dandjinou said.
WATCH | Sarault and Dandjinou receive Crystal Globe trophies:Moncton's Courtney Sarault and Montreal's William Dandjinou received Crystal Globes after being crowned overall champions of the short track speed skating World Tour.The World Tour was shortened from the usual six stops to four to make room for the Milan-Cortina Olympics. The results will be used to determine the number of quota spots for each country.
The Canadian high-performance program will also use the results to help select the five men and five women who will compete for Canada in Italy, a list that will be revealed in the coming weeks.
WATCH | Sarault secures overall title with 1,500m silver:Courtney Sarault took the 1,500-metre silver medal at Sunday's World Tour stop in Dordrecht, Netherlands delivering the Moncton native the Crystal Globe.