Speed skating: Canada wins gold and two bronze medals at World Cup in Nur-Sultan
A double podium finish from Ivanie Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann in the women’s 5000-metre highlighted Canada’s opening day at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Blondin and Weidemann have dominated the long distance events on the World Cup circuit for Canada this season, and that theme continued on Friday.
With a remarkable finish, including the fastest final four laps of the day, Blondin edged out Czech Republic’s Martina Sáblíková by a mere 0.05 seconds to capture the gold medal. Blondin’s time of 6:54.945 also set a new track record, topping Sáblíková’s old mark by nearly five seconds. Weidemann’s time of 6:55.809, less than a second behind Blondin, was good for bronze, completing the double podium finish for Canada.
It was the second podium finish of the 2019-20 World Cup season in long distance events for both Weidemann and Blondin who now sit second and third, respectively, in the women’s ISU World Cup Long Distances standings.
READ: Speed skating: Canada earns three medals with women’s double podium finish in Minsk
On the men’s side, Alex Boisvert-Lacroix won bronze in the 500m with a time of 34.730, trailing gold medalist Viktor Mushtakov of Russia by just 0.09 seconds.
Long track speed skating continues through the weekend in Nur-Sultan with coverage from the CBC.
