Maltais, Weidemann, and Blondin win the Team Pursuit; Dubreuil skates a season’s fastest time in 500m

SALT LAKE CITY, USA – The second day of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Salt Lake City comes to a close with a silver and gold for Canada.

In the women’s Team Pursuit, Olympic champions Valérie Maltais (La Baie, Que.), Isabelle Weidemann (Ottawa, Ont.), and Ivanie Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.) raced to the top of the podium, just one week after winning gold at the ISU Four Continents Championships. Finishing the race in just 2:54.07, they captured first place ahead of seven other teams, including the second ranked Japanese (+1.44) and third ranked United States (+3.59). This marks the third Canadian World Cup medal in the women’s Team Pursuit of the season, including silvers at Obihiro and Tomaszów Mazowiecki. 

Canada finished second in the overall World Cup standings this season for the Team Pursuit, earning a total of 168 points over three competitions, picking up 54 in Obihiro, 54 in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, and 60 in Salt Lake City. Japan is first with 174 points, and Poland third with 134 points.

In the men’s 500m, Laurent Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.) had a strong race, earning a season’s best time of 34.05 (+0.09) and a silver medal. Dubreuil finished ahead of 18 other skaters to win his fourth World Cup in the 500m this season, which includes gold and silver in Tomaszów Mazowiecki and silver in Beijing. Jordan Stolz (United States) won Saturday’s race in 33.96, while Yuma Murakami (Japan) finished in third (+0.20).

The ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Salt Lake City will wrap on Sunday with the women’s 1000m-2 and Mass Start, the men’s 5000m and and 1000m-2, and the Mixed Relay. Races can be watched live on CBC Sports digital platforms, including CBCSports.ca and the CBC Gem app.

Quotes

“It was a good race. Really happy. Very good start, 9.57. Very good lap too. Little details that can be corrected here and there, but overall, it was a good race. Just 9 hundredths behind Jordan. Of course, Jordan was 15 hundredths ahead, so that’s difficult. He had an incredible weekend, but I was still competitive. Another medal, my 35th in my individual career. I’m happy too, it’s starting to add up. I feel I’ve got good legs. I’ll have good legs next week. I’m capable of keeping that up until the world championships. I’m pretty much where I want to be. Of course, you always want to be a little better, but my start is good, my lap is good. Technically, it’s solid. I’m not making any big mistakes. I’m skating well and it’s fun. I’m back on track. I’m really happy and I can’t wait for the World Cup in Quebec next week. It’s going to be great fun to skate in front of family and friends.”

Laurent Dubreuil

“We’re happy with how we raced today. We’ve got something to clean up — I had a slip at the start, and then Val and I clipped blades coming out in the last corner — so we’re looking forward to spending the next few weeks doing a little more training together. I’ve had to learn a lot in my new role in the middle. I’m stoked to be back. I’ve raced the Team Pursuit with Ivanie for like 8 years — we haven’t missed a single one together. So, I had a bit of a hard time watching the girls race without me the fall… not because I felt like I should be on the start line, but because I felt like I should have been there supporting my team. It was super awesome to watch Beatrice race though — and have her help to secure a second place overall this year. We haven’t had depth like that in the women’s Team Pursuit in a long time. It’s very cool.”

Isabelle Weidemann

Results

1500m

Ivanie Blondin: 6th
Valérie Maltais: 10th
Abigail Mccluskey: 3rd (Division B)
Alison Desmarais: 9th (Division B)
Alexa Scott: 12th (Division B)
Vincent De Haître: 12th
Connor Howe: 4th
Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 15th
Ryan Kulbacki: 19th (Division B)

500m

Carolina Hiller: 15th
Heather Carruthers: 4th (Division B)
Brooklyn McDougall: 14th (Division B)
Rose Laliberté-Roy: 15th (Division B)
Maddison Pearman: 23rd (Division B)
Laurent Dubreuil: 2nd
Anders Johnson: 7th (Division B)
Yankun Zhao: (Division B)
Cedrick Brunet: 12th (Division B)
Joshua Telizyn: 15th (Division B)

Team Pursuit

Valérie Maltais, Isabelle Weidemann, Ivanie Blondin: 1st
Jake Weidemann, Max Halyk, Hayden Mayeur: 1st (Division B)