TOMASZOW MAZOWIECKI, POLAND - NOVEMBER 22: (L-R) Team China, team Netherlands and team Canada pose in the Men's Team Sprint medal ceremony during ISU World Cup Speed Skating at Tomaszow Mazoviecki Ice Arena on November 22, 2019 in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland. (Photo by Joosep Martinson - International Skating Union (ISU)/International Skating Union via Getty Images)

The Canadian men captured their second World Cup Speed Skating bronze medal in as many weeks during the Team Sprint event on Friday in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland.

Alex Boisvert-Lacroix (Sherbrooke, Que.), Laurent Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.) and David La Rue (Saint-Lambert, Que.) skated a time of 1:20.966 in the second last pairing of the afternoon to temporarily put themselves in first place. In the final pairing, teams from the Netherlands and China laid down the fastest sprints of the day to replicate the podium from last weekend’s World Cup in Belarus.

Three Canadians also placed in the top-10 in individual distances on Friday. After earning gold and bronze medals last weekend in the 3000m, Isabelle Weidemann and Ivanie Blondin, both of Ottawa, finished fourth and eighth over the same distance in Poland. After two events, Weidemann and Blondin are second and fifth in the World Cup long distance rankings, respectively.

Graeme Fish, the 24-year-old from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, continues to impress in his first full year on the World Cup circuit, skating in a pairing against gold medalist Patrick Roest of the Netherlands to place eighth in the 5000m.

The World Cup Speed Skating continues Saturday with the ladies’ 500m and team pursuit, and the men’s 1500m and mass start events. Races will be streamed live on CBC Sports beginning at 9:00am ET.

“This weekend, we used a different team than the last World Cup. To know that we are capable of putting two different combinations of skaters on the ice and still be competitive gives us lots of confidence. We think we are capable of reaching toward second place. It’s a question of keeping up our speed later in the race; at the start we are very, very strong.”

– Laurent Dubreuil
“It feels great to have my second top-10 result in two weeks and I definitely want to keep on improving. I was excited to race Roest; right now he’s the best distance skater in the world. I had to go out and skate my own race, not focusing too much on what he was doing. Hopefully I’m closer to him next time!”

– Graeme Fish

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