Canadian speed skater William Dandjino won the gold medal in the men's 1000 meters race at the International Skating Union Short Track World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, today Sunday.

The Montreal native recorded a time of one minute and 25.534 seconds to achieve his first victory in this event since the 2023 Four Continents Short Track Championship in Laval, Quebec.

The 22-year-old jumped to the front of the pack at the start of the race, which included five athletes on Sunday, setting a fast pace.

While both South Korean skaters took the lead just three laps from the finish, Hwang Dae-hyun was penalized for blocking Park Ji-won in a maneuver that forced them off the track, opening the door for Dandjino to regain the lead.

The Canadian skater finished the last laps at a fast pace and narrowly outpaced Italian Pietro Sighel, the silver medalist, by 0.021 seconds.

Italian Luca Spezhnhouser took the bronze medal with a time of 1:26.026 minutes.

Dandjino has been a star on the World Cup circuit this season. He won gold medals in the 1500 meters races at stops in Montreal in October, Seoul in South Korea in December, Dresden in Germany in February, and earned the 1500 meters World Cup ranking title.

American Kristen Santos-Griswold won the gold medal with a time of 1:42.717 in the women's 1000 meters race, surpassing South Korean Kim Jilee, who took silver (1:43.049), and Italian Arianna Fontana, who won the bronze (1:43.074).

Canadian women's relay team reaches the podium

The Canadian women's relay team won the bronze medal in a chaotic 3000 meters final that saw many competitors fall, finishing with a time of 4:12.675 to take third place.

Netherlands recorded the win with a time of 4:07.788 minutes while the United States took silver with a time of 4:08.061 minutes.

Danai Bliz, Riki Dwack, Renee Marie Stinji, and Kim Boutin formed the four-woman unit for Canada, which last won Canada's first gold medal in the event that lasted three days until Saturday in the women's 500 meter race.

Adding Jordan Pierre Gill's bronze medal in the 500 meters on Saturday, the total number of Canadian medals in this event reached four, double last year's total, but with two additional gold medals won this year.

Before the end of this weekend, Canada's last gold medal in a world championship was the now-retired Charles Hamelin in the men's 1500 meters race in Dordrecht, Netherlands, in 2021.