Laurent Dubreuil and Valérie Maltais win gold; six skaters reach senior international podium for first time
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC – Canada made quite the impression on the opening day of the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Quebec City, winning six medals, including three gold, in front of a hometown crowd at the new Centre de glace Intact Assurance.
Laurent Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.) kicked things off with a gold medal performance in the 500m, reaching the top step of the podium, in front of family and friends, at the city’s first international long track speed skating competition in 30-years.
Dubreuil crossed the line in 34.462, just shy of the track record he set in October. He was joined on the podium by friend and rival Yuma Murakami (34.880), a Japanese skater that trained with the Canadian team in Quebec City this past summer, as well as Korea’s Jun-Ho Kim (34.978).
A pair of Canadians captured their first career senior international medals in the women’s 3000m later in the day, with Valérie Maltais (La Baie, Que.) winning gold and Béatrice Lamarche (Québec City, Que.) earning bronze. Maltais skated a season’s best 4:03.150 to finish first, while teammate Lamarche crushed her previous personal best with a time of 4:10.666 to earn third place. Kazakhstan’s Nadezhda Morozova (4:05.517) completed the podium in silver medal position.
Jordan Belchos followed up Canada’s double-medal performance by winning a long-distance medal one of his own, posting a time of 6:24.111 to take bronze in the men’s 5000m, just ahead of teammate Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu (6:25.026), who finished one position short of the podium in fourth. The Toronto native was joined on the podium by Kazakhstan’s Vitaliy Chshigolev (6:22.815) and Korea’s Seung-Hoon Lee (6:23.364).
Canada ended the day with a pair of medals in the Team Sprint, with the men’s team of Dubreuil, Christopher Fiola (Montreal, Que.) and David La Rue (Montreal, Que.) winning gold, and the women’s squad of Alison Desmarais (Vanderhoof, B.C.), Rose Laliberté-Roy (Saint-Étienne, Que.) and Abigail McCluskey (Penticton, B.C.) earning bronze. It marked the first senior international medals for Fiola, as well as all three female skaters.
The competition continues tomorrow with the men’s and women’s 1500m and Mass Start, beginning at 1:00pm ET. Tickets are still available at longuepiste.ca. Racing will be live streamed on CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports. CBC will also have broadcast television coverage of the day beginning at 4:00 PM ET.
Quotes
This first international race in Quebec City was a lot of fun. We’ve been waiting for it for a long time and I’m happy I was able to deliver a good performance today. It was a good race in general. I really wanted to perform well because there were a lot of people that came to watch me skate. It was a definitely a memorable moment after my victory, with the fans cheering on and my family – Rose, my grand-parents, parents, brother and sister – in the stands.
Laurent Dubreuil
It’s very special to win an individual distance medal in long track! Today, my approach was to believe that I could win, something that I’ve never had in an individual distance since I switched to long track. That approach gave me good energy, and not only did I win today, but I skated a season best time and executed one of my best-ever races. Being able to win at home was amazing. There was really a special energy in the building. The fans were cheering so loudly that you could feel it each time you skated by the stands on the straight.
Valérie Maltais
Results
- Women’s 500m
- Rose Laliberte-Roy: 8th
- Alison Desmarais: 12th
- Abigail McCluskey: 14th
- Men’s 500m
- Laurent Dubreuil: 1st
- Christopher Fiola: 6th
- Cedrick Brunet: 9th
- Women’s 3000m
- Valerie Maltais: 1st
- Béatrice Lamarche: 3rd
- Laura Hall: 5th
- Men’s 5000m
- Jordan Belchos: 3rd
- Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 4th
- Max Halyk: 11th
- Team Sprint
- Men’s: 1st
- Women’s: 3rd