Canada wins men’s team pursuit bronze at worlds in Russia
Canadians struck a second medal on Day 2 of the ISU World Single Distances Championships, this time in the men’s team pursuit.
In the eight-lap event where three skaters simultaneously race against the clock at worlds (with the last one crossing the finish line registering the official time), Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen, Jordan Belchos and Benjamin Donnelly crossed in third place with a time of three minutes, 43.28 seconds.
Their time was bettered only by Norway (3:41.26) and the heavily favoured Netherlands (3:40.04). Despite the net-positive income, the Canadians seem less than content.
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“This is a medal at the World Championships, so you have to be happy with that,” Bloemen said. “We all agreed, however, that there are details we need to improve. For myself, I wasn’t synching up as much as I would have liked in the corners. We could have gotten more out of it, but we have a bronze medal and we’re happy about that.”
For Bloemen, it’s his second medal in as many days, having won silver in the men’s 10,000m race on Thursday.
“Norway always has strong skaters, so we were expecting them to come up with a good time,” Donnelly added.
The world championships in single distances continues through the weekend. Later this season in Berlin there will be an allround world championship where each skater will take part in 500m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m races for an overall title.
