Speed Skating Canada

| Events: International, National Team: Long Track

Daniel Hall wins Mass Start silver at World Junior Championship in Inzell

| Events: International, National Team: Long Track

Daniel Hall wins Mass Start silver at World Junior Championship in Inzell

| Events: International, National Team: Long Track

Daniel Hall wins Mass Start silver at World Junior Championship in Inzell

Canada earns nine top-10 results at competition in Germany

INZELL, GERMANY – Calgary’s Daniel Hall won Canada’s lone medal at the ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships in Inzell, brining home silver in the men’s Mass Start on Sunday. The Canadian long track team also earned nine top-10 results and had five skaters ranked in the top-20 overall over the course of the weekend.

Hall and Lukáš Steklý of Czechia broke away from the pack after the first sprint lap in the Mass Start final and continued to push the pace to pull away from the rest of the skaters. The 17-year-old Canadian passed Steklý in the second last lap to take the lead, but the Czech skater took it back in the final lap, crossing the line in 5:12.83 to earn the victory. Hall was a close second (5:13.07), while U.S. rising start Jordan Stolz was third (5:22.01).

Hall’s silver was Canada’s only medal of the competition. He becomes the first Canadian male to earn World Junior Championship hardware in the Mass Start since David La Rue won gold in 2018. Recent medalists also include Graeme Fish (2017), Christopher Fiola (2016) and Ben Donnelly (2016).

Canada came close to reaching the podium on a few different occasions earlier in the weekend.

Despite skating personal best of 35.74 in the men’s 500m, Calgary’s Jalen Doan finished just shy of the podium, one hundredth of a second behind bronze medalist Tim Prins (35.73) of the Netherlands. American Jordan Stolz (34.95) was the race winner, with Japan’s Issa Gunji (34.97) earning silver. Doan’s fourth place was the best result for a Canadian male in the 500m since Christopher Fiola won silver in 2016. Fellow Canadian Yankun Zhao was eighth (35.99).

Doan (1:11.35) and Zhao (1:11.29) also cracked the top-10 in the 1000m, finishing seventh and sixth, respectively. The men’s Team Sprint (4th) and Team Pursuit (6th) also came up just short of bringing home a medal.

On the women’s side, Darby Beeson set personal bests in all four of her individual distances, finishing the competition as the top ranked Canadian female in the 1000m (1:22.05), 1500m (2:06.98) and 3000m (4:27.30). The Airdrie, Alta., native finished the competition as the top ranked Canadian in the Allround standings as well in 13th position. Teammates Sofia Bieber (16th) and Cloé Jelonek (17th) also cracked the top-20 overall.

Canadian speed skating fans can re-watch the races from the ISU World Junior Speed Skating Championships on the ISU channel on Recast.

Quote

” I didn’t expect to win a medal, so this is a pretty great feeling! My race plan was to try and be part of a breakaway because I was still tired from the Team Sprint and didn’t think I could win in a sprint. There was a breakaway after the first points lap, so I hoped in and try to stay with him the rest of the race. With three laps to go, I looked back and couldn’t see the other skaters and told myself I had to keep pushing to try and get the win. I tried to get away from him [Lukáš Steklý] in the last two laps, but he just had more legs than me. I ended up getting second place and I can’t complain about it at all.”

Daniel Hall

“This being my first World Junior Championship experience, I feel honoured that I’ve had the opportunity to represent Canada and skate with an amazing team. I loved my first international experience and learning in a new skating environment. My results this weekend was well past the expectations that I had set up for myself before the event. With a new personal best in every race, I felt as thought my performance was the best it could have been. I focused on all my technical aspects and worked with my strengths while racing. My biggest take away from this weekend is how much learning and training I have ahead of me. Seeing what I was capable of this weekend has made me very excited to start training for next season to come back even stronger.”

Darby Beeson

“It’s a crazy feeling. I’ve never competed at this level before, so having such a strong result is more then I could’ve thought possible. My goals coming into the 500m was to skate for a top-8 placement. After my 500m the weekend before [at the Junior World Cup Final], I was concerned that I wasn’t opening as well as I could have and I wasn’t satisfied with my race. So going into this weekend, Will [Dutton], Sabrina [Lapointe] and I dedicated a lot of practice being comfortable at the line again. Without their support, I don’t think I would have been able to skate a personal best opener into one of my best races of my season.

Jalen Doan

Results

Allround Women’s

  • Darby Beeson: 13th
  • Sofia Bieber: 16th
  • Cloé Jelonek: 17th

Women’s 500m

  • Sofia Bieber: 24th
  • Cloé Jelonek: 28th
  • Maya Lueders: 29th
  • Darby Beeson: 31st
  • Émilie Greenfield: 44th

Women’s 1000m

  • Darby Beeson: 25th
  • Cloé Jelonek: 26th
  • Sofia Bieber: 28th
  • Maya Lueders: 40th

Women’s 1500m

  • Darby Beeson: 23rd
  • Sofia Bieber: 26th
  • Cloé Jelonek: 33rd
  • Émilie Greenfield: 39th

Women’s 3000m

  • Darby Beeson: 21st
  • Cloé Jelonek: 32nd
  • Émilie Greenfield: 34th
  • Sofia Bieber: 35th

Allround Men’s

  • Luca Veeman: 12th
  • Max Poulin: 13th
  • Jalen Doan: 24th
  • Yankun Zhao: 25th

Men’s 500m

  • Jalen Doan: 4th
  • Yankun Zhao: 8th
  • Max Poulin: 27th
  • Luca Veeman: 37th
  • Daniel Hall: 52nd

Men’s 1000m

  • Yankun Zhao: 6th
  • Jalen Doan: 7th
  • Luca Veeman: 23rd
  • Max Poulin: 37th

Men’s 1500m

  • Max Poulin: 20th
  • Luca Veeman: 23rd
  • Jalen Doan: 24th
  • Yankun Zhao: 25th

Men’s 5000m

  • Daniel Hall: 21st
  • Luca Veeman: 33rd
  • Max Poulin: 36th

Men’s Mass Start

  • Daniel Hall: 2nd

Team

  • Women’s Team Sprint: 9th
  • Women’s Team Pursuit: 7th
  • Men’s Team Sprint: 4th
  • Men’s Team Pursuit: 6th