Alexa Scott won Allround bronze at the ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland, Saturday, as she came in third in the final overall individual standings.
Scott (Clandeboye, Man.) achieved the result, her best in three career World Junior Championships, after finishing fourth and 10th, respectively, in Saturday’s 1000m and 3000m races. That gave her four top-10 results in as many individual races over the weekend, as she was 5th and 8th, respectively, in Friday’s 500m and 1500m events. Dutch skater Femke Kok was crowned 2020 female World Junior Champion after finishing first in the women’s Allround standings, ahead of Robin Groot, also from the Netherlands, and Scott.
“Overall, I had a tough weekend, I had to persevere through some stuff, but it was a good achievement at the end of a hard weekend. I got close to the podium in the 1000m, I was just off of it, that was a little disappointing, but I did what I had to do to get to third place in the Allround, so I’m pretty happy.”
Scott finished fourth in Saturday’s 1000m with a time of 1:19.251, only 0.182 seconds away from the bronze medalist, Dutch skater Marrit Fledderus (1:19.069), who finished behind Kok (1:17.143) and Groot (1:17.972).
That strengthened Scott’s spot in third place overall with one race to go, the 3000m. The 18-year-old Canadian skater came up with a time of 4:25.089 in thateventand was provisionally second in Allround standings, behind Kok,with one foursome to go in the 3000m, but Groot skated to a fourth-place finish and was able to overtake Scott in Allround standings.
Scott, a two-time Canadian junior champion, finished fifth overall in last year’s World Junior Championships. She was 18th in 2018.
Hubert Marcotte (Pont-Rouge, Que.) was one of three Canadians to finish in the top-10 in the men’sAll Round standings. He was 9th in Saturday’s 1000m, his best result of the weekend,and came in 19th in the 5000m to finish fifth overall. Marcotte was 12th last year, when he made his World Junior Championship debut.
“I’m really happy with my results. Before my races, I tried not to think to much about the results, in fact, and I focused more on just having a good race and skating well, without worrying about the final result. Still, I really didn’t expect to have results like these, and to be so high in the standings. ”
“It’s really cool (to see three Canadians in the top-10 and four in the top-15). I’m proud of my teammates and me. It bodes well for the future of the senior national team. The senior skaters, right now, are very strong in World Cups at in World Championships, and I think that the junior skaters we have now will be able to maintain those same standards.”
– Hubert Marcotte
Frank Roth (Calgary, Alta.) was 8th in Saturday’s 1000m, his second top-10 result of the weekend, and came in 22nd in the 5000m to finish 7th overall. The reigning Canadian junior champion was 17th overall in last year’s World Junior Championships.
Jack Deibert (Calgary, Alta.) also improved on last year’s result, coming 8th overall on Saturday, compared to 15th place in 2019.
All four skaters on the men’s side made the top-15 Allround standings as Cédrick Brunet (Gatineau, Que.) finished 12th in his World Junior Championships debut.
The combined results from the 500m, 1000m, 1500m and 3000m/5000m events held Friday and Saturday counted in the Allround standings.
