Canadians capture three more medals at Calgary World Cup
Laurent Dubreuil‘s 500m reign continued in Calgary as he skated to his eighth consecutive 500m medal of the World Cup season. Ivanie Blondin captured silver and the men claimed bronze in the team pursuit. The Canadian medal haul reached a grand total of eight over the weekend at the ISU World Cup in Calgary.
On Sunday afternoon, the 29-year-old Canadian landed on the third step of the podium after posting a time of 34.064 seconds in the second 500m division A final. Russian skater Viktor Mushtakov finished in the top spot with a time of 33.903 and Japan’s Yuma Murakami finished with the silver medal (33.991). Canadian skater Alex Boisvert-Lacroix finished in seventh place.
Later in the evening the women’s mass start final got underway. Ivanie Blondin finished with a silver medal after clocking a time of 8 minutes and 29.710 seconds. Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy claimed victory (8:29.510) and Russian skater Elizaveta Golubeva finished with the bronze medal (8:29.720). Fellow Canadian Valérie Maltais finished off the podium in seventh position with a time of 8:38.690.
The last medal of the day came in the men’s team pursuit final. The trio of Ted-Jan Bloemen, Connor Howe and Jordan Belchos skated to a bronze medal with a time of 3:38.604. The Americans finished in the top spot (3:35.592) while Norway finished in second (3:36.242).
In the women’s 1500m division A final on Sunday, Blondin and Isabelle Weidemann finished off the podium in eighth and eleventh position respectively.
READ: Laurent Dubreuil skates to a record-breaking gold in Calgary
Canadians achieved three medals on the opening day, followed by two on the second day of competition. On Friday, Dubreuil skated to a record-breaking gold medal in the 500m event. He reached the top of the podium after clocking in a time of 33.778s to beat Jeremy Wotherpoon‘s national record dating back to 2007. His sprint to the finish line is also a speed skating track record as the fastest recorded 500m at the Calgary Olympic Oval. Ted-Jan Bloemen also reached the podium, taking a bronze medal in the men’s 5000m. On the women’s side, Weidemann skated a personal-best time of 3:55.344 to win a 3000m silver.
READ: Speed skating: women’s pursuit team sets another national record
On Saturday, the trio of Blondin, Weidemann and Maltais won gold in the women’s pursuit and set another national record. They are three-for-three in this event this season. In the men’s 1500m, it was Connor Howe’s first time on the individual World Cup podium after skating to a personal best time of 1:42.42 on Saturday.
READ: Speed into the season with Team Canada’s long track speed skaters
Speed skating action wrapped up at the ISU World Cup on Sunday in Calgary before heading to Beijing 2022.
