Ivanie Blondin and Laurent Dubreuil stepped on the podium for Canada at the ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Poland on Sunday, winning a silver medal in the ladies’ mass start and a bronze medal in the men’s 500m, respectively.
Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.) narrowly missed out on a second consecutive gold in the mass start, leading for most of the race but losing the sprint to the finish line against Irene Schouten of the Netherlands. Blondin ended with a time of 9:03.410 and 42 sprint points, ahead of Japan’s Nana Takagi.
Dubreuil’s time of 34.975 put him behind Japanese teammates Tatsuya Shinhama and Yuma Murakami on the podium in the men’s 500m. It is the Lévis, Quebec native’s first individual distance medal on the World Cup circuit since the start of the 2017-18 season.
Other Results to Note
- Alex Boisvert-Lacroix won Division B of the men’s 500m with a time of 35.207.
- The men’s team pursuit – composed of Ted-Jan Bloemen, Graeme Fish and Jordan Belchos – finished just off the podium in fourth place.
The World Cup circuit continues in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on December 6-8.
Quotes
“My goal at the World Cups is always to be on the podium in my individual distances. I was in the B Group last week, so I am very happy to have won a medal in my first race in A Group. I’m also pleased because we trained a bit differently this summer, so to see that bearing fruit and delivering results is very positive.”
– Laurent Dubreuil