Canadian Ice Maples capture silver in men's relay to wrap up Short Track World Tour in Vancouver

Beginning of the preamble stage of the Men's Relay Gold Medal Final. The key in the early stage, Tyler, I'm guessing, nothing stupid. You don't make any simple mistakes here. Certainly a bit of the strategy. Some teams might go out a little bit quicker, try to fatigue the legs of their competitors, but all the teams here are so strong. Usually that just results in you doing a lot of work out front, breaking the air resistance and fatiguing your own team so now we see a lot of teams opting to take the early stages of the relay a little bit more calm a little bit more relaxed and conserving their legs for the finish. Japanese ninjas if I'm not mistaken have not won a medal on world tour in the men's relay since Seoul back in year one of the world tour so that would have been We're at the end of 2024. Silver medal, the Mokdong Ice Rink. Zhu Yiding leading the way for the lungs. Matsuzuka Shuta, Maxim Laun, just after that exchange now. Back to the beginners. Shindong Min now on the ice for the White Tigers. So if we rewind back to Montreal World Championships, Canadian Ice Maples were the world champions in the relay, and the chinese lungs were silver of course the world championships they're just known as canada and china yes but on the world tour reference yes to put it into the terms where we are right now leading the front on the ice is Steven Dubois the vastly experienced Steven Dubois soft-spoken off the ice he lets his skating do the talking multiple world champion now and Olympic champion oh yes the 500 meters remember watching that 500 meter final and thinking he's in position one that's his spot sure enough he went off to claim gold that day I believe that's a new helmet design for him this year one of the latest sport personalized design it's just becoming everywhere you go and there also seem to be those skaters who seem to like just the the simple matte color design. Mathieu Pelletier on the ice for the Canadians. Inching down. You may have mentioned it already Gavin but Njonga not present for the White Tigers team. That certainly changes up the dynamics of that group. He was helped off the ice grabbing what to be a hip glute something like that but we'll hope to see him in Montreal next weekend but recovery paramount there some long now we start to tick down just above 10 seconds now below 10 seconds so long Jung Bah has really been mixing it up this weekend taking some big steps forward on the world tour in the absence of some of his teammates who aren't here really started last year world championships where he uh i think he impressed us in a number of races and now that's just continuing as this Chinese lung side just reloading now it's the lungs the ninjas the white tigers and the ice maples nobody has set a skate wrong so far always in the back of our mind how's the ice doing well that's always a concern towards the end of the relay there was just a 5,000-meter relay on advance of this race, which puts a lot of work into the ice. Those skaters have to be oh-so-careful in the finishing stages, looking for clean ice so they get some good grip. Now down to 19 to go. Yoshinaga Kazuki. He's been around the Japanese program for a long time. That's them up into second. 17 laps to go. Here the pace starting to pick up. We see our first sub-9 second lap of this relay. and it's the lungs for the lead, Matsuzushita and he has three beautiful loop doubles knocking at the door I missed that move by well Maxim Luan with a beautiful double inside pass to get the Ice Maples out of fourth position the Korean skaters after that exchange lost his glasses he has to go back and get them the quick handoff as it's Maxime Loustau putting pressure on Yoshinaga bumped him a bit dropped back lost some speed the Japanese ninjas starting to dream. None of the teams faltering. Stephen Dubois looking up the inside. Just does it so quickly. Turns on the quick speed. A little bit of a wobble that allows the lungs up into second. And now the grip. A growing problem but Maxime, massive attack out front. Absolute surge. He brings in Félix Lussier. Absolute injection of pace from the Canadian Ice Maples and now the rest of the world is chasing. Sun Long trying to haul him back. They have opened the throttle here they've opened a massive gap. Mathieu Pelletier not done just yet that little wobble cannot count the chickens before they hatch you get to the line on your two skates Dupuis. The final few exchanges Maxime Loustau is at a very good weekend an individual medal for the Canadians but he would love to finish with his team atop the podium. The Korean white tiger in a second gonna bring in Mathieu Pelletier no pressure kid finish the job. Guys when you have a lead of that proportion going in the last laps you just don't want to give it up by having a fall you get a little bit more defensive you hold back you get a little bit tighter you're afraid of pushing too hard and when you're in second you've got nothing to lose so you go for it the Canadian Ice Maples just tightening up a little bit still a tremendous performance but the finish from the white Tigers is unmatched certainly smiles all around for the Canadians great performance just near those few little wobbles coming around that just saps the speed and when the legs are tired the door opened up but a great race for good teams back to block giving the Canadians the lead check here I think it was Lee Jung-hwan there it is the late move helps yay handle that corner well wasn't gonna ever stop fighting but Lee just had the beatings hit him late and the Korean White Tigers will finish atop the podium in the men's relay Tyler heads down to the ice the white tiger is getting some congratulations there by the canadians they get those new look jackets, new season new merchandise for the teams the countdown is on, five days away from Montreal is sun long results confirmed white tigers final few meters, the final turn taking it ahead of the Ice Maples, the Chinese Longs and the Japanese Ninjas.