MONTREAL - Charles Hamelin doesn't have Ahn Hyun-Soo to chase anymore, but there will be plenty of other fast South Koreans to beat at a World Cup short-track speedskating meet this week.

And some Chinese and Americans, too, as the top skaters from 35 countries gather for the four-day event that starts Thursday at the Maurice Richard Arena, which is the Canadian team's national training centre.

It is a qualifying meet for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Canada will try to place the maximum of three men and women in each event, which shouldn't be too difficult for one of the world's short-track powers.

Leading the men's team is Hamelin, the Levis, Que., native who is the reigning world champion in the 500-metre race.

He battled for gold many times with Ahn, who he calls "the best in the world of all-time," until the South Korean wrecked a knee in a crash during training in January 2008. After three operations, the five-time overall world champion is back skating, but failed to crack his country's Olympic team.

"It's a bit disappointing that he won't be here," Hamelin said Monday. "I hope he comes back and I can race against him again.

"The Koreans will still be strong, like Canada and a couple of Americans and Chinese. But when you had Ahn in a race, you knew he'd be somewhere in the top two and you'd have to try to take the other place. So in that way it will be a bit easier, but in the finals it's always hard to race against the Koreans."

Ahn was world champion from 2003 to 2007, the year Hamelin was second.

When Ahn went down, his compatriot Lee Ho-Suk emerged, finishing second to American veteran Apolo Ohno in 2008 and taking first place in 2009, ahead of American J.R. Celski and Hamelin. The 18-year-old Celski will sit out the Montreal meet with a leg injury.

Canada's men's Olympic squad also has Hamelin's brother Francois, Olivier Jean of Montreal, Francois-Louis Tremblay of Alma, Que., and Guillaume Bastille of Riviere-du-Loup, Que.

The women's team has Jessica Gregg of Edmonton, Valerie Maltais of La Baie, Que., Kalyna Roberge of St-Etienne de Lauzon, Que., Marianne St-Gelais of Roberval, Que., and veteran Tania Vicent of Laval, Que.

As host country, Canada automatically gets one spot in each event, but will need to qualify for the extra two. The relay teams also get direct entry.

"It will be quite easy for us, but we will have to be careful not to have any bad races or disqualifications in early rounds, which would make it harder," said Hamelin. "My objective will be to go to the final and try to win every race."

A highlight of every big meet is the relay, where Canada won silver in both the men's and women's races at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. On the men's side, it always comes down to a Canada-South Korea showdown

"If you look at the races we did in Korea (two months ago), we lost the gold but we were passing each other for the last six laps of the race," Hamelin added. "And we beat them in the semifinals. So we have potential to be the best team in the world."

Ahn won three gold medals and a bronze in Turin, where Canada's individual-event medals were a silver in the 500-metres by Tremblay and bronze in the women's 500 by Anouk Leblanc-Boucher, who has retired.

The Chinese are a force in women's short-track, led by 2008 and 2009 overall world champion Wang Meng.

"We're looking to reconnect with the competition," said 33-year-old Vicent, who is looking to compete at a fourth Olympics. "We're looking to get three spots in every discipline, which should be doable.

"If we don't it will be a big disapointment. We're also looking to perfect in our race strategy. Even though the plan is that we won't be peaking at this competition, we will be rested so we should do good. But it shouldn't be our best reuslts. That should come at the Games."

It has helped the women's relay team that Gregg, who trains in Calgary and is the only Olympic team member not living in Montreal, came in two weeks early for extra work.

"At the World Cups in Asia we were pretty disappointed with our results, but we're a new team and we were up against teams that work together all the time," added Vicent. "Since Jessica came, we've improved our relay times and exchanges, so that should help a lot."

Gregg, whose father Randy is a former defenceman for the Edmonton Oilers and whose mother Kathy was a speedskater at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics, welcomed the chance to renew acquaintences with her teammates.

"It's exciting and motivating to train here because I'm the only one from out west," the 21-year-old said. "And it's good to skate at the venue for a couple of weeks before the event."

As for being separated from the team for much of the year, Gregg said: "There are advantages and disadvantages. The language barrier's hard because I'm not fluent in French, but I've known these people a long time so it's a good atmosphere to train in."

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