Valérie Maltais narrowly misses 5000m podium with fourth-place finish

STAVANGER, NORWAY – The trio of Carolina Hiller, Maddison Pearman and Ivanie Blondin raced to a bronze medal in the women’s Team Sprint on Sunday, earning the Canadian long track team its third medal at ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Stavanger.

Hiller (Prince-George, B.C.), Pearman (Ponoka, Alta.) and Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.) finished the three-lap sprint with a time of 1:28.34, earning them a third-place finish. Paired with the gold medal winning Americans (1:27.92), the Canadians overcame the slowest start amongst the nine-team field thanks to a speedy final lap from Blondin. Their time put them comfortably ahead of fourth-place Poland (1:29.71), but slightly behind their silver medalist counterparts from the Netherlands 1:28.17)

The podium finish was Canada’s second of the season in the women’s Team Sprint, having also won silver at last month’s World Cup in Beijing. The medal bodes well for the defending World Champions, who earned Saturday’s bronze with slightly different lineup, as Hiller replaced teammate Brooklyn McDougall, who competed in the Chinese capital.

Despite not reaching the podium this weekend, the men’s Team Sprint squad continues to make positive progress. Josh Telizyn (Fort St-John, B.C.), Anders Johnson (Calgary, Alta.) and Vincent De Haitre (Cumberland, Ont.) earned a fifth-place result with a time of 1:21.59, an improvement on their eighth-place finish in Beijing (1:22.43).

Valérie Maltais (La Baie, Que.) continued her hot streak, finishing Sunday with Canada’s top result in an individual distance. The 33-year-old just barely missed the podium in the women’s 5000m, settling for a fourth-place finish with a time of 7:05.60.

Canada finishes leaves the first of two European World Cups with three medals, with Maltais’ silver in the Mass Start and Ted-Jan Bloemen’s silver in the 10,000m added to the Team Sprint bronze.

The ISU World Cup Speed Skating season continues next weekend with the fourth competition of the season in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland. Races will be live streamed on CBC Sports digital platforms, including CBCSports.ca and the CBC Gem app.

Quotes

“I’m very happy to be back on the podium with the girls! We are lucky that we’ve got a strong team of women that we can interchange and still end up on the podium. I had a disappointing weekend in my individual races, so it feels great to finish off the weekend with a fun event and a medal!”

Maddison Pearman

“It feels great to be able to race the Team Sprint again and it’s very empowering that we have a great group of women that we can interchange and still reach the podium. I am very proud of us!”

Carolina Hiller

Results

500m

Carolina Hiller: 11th
Brooklyn McDougall: 9th (Division B)
Maddison Pearman: 21st (Division B)

1500m

Connor Howe: 16th
Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 18th
Vincent De Haître: DQ (Division B)

5000m

Valérie Maltais: 4th
Ivanie Blondin: 8th
Laura Hall: 12th

Team Sprint

Women’s: 3rd
Men’s: 5th