Laurent Dubreuil, Christopher Fiola and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu lead Canada to Team Sprint bronze medal on home ice
CALGARY, ALBERTA – Canada earned a pair of bronze medals on the opening day of ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Calgary. Ivanie Blondin reached the podium in the women’s 5000m, while Christopher Fiola, Laurent Dubreuil and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu medalled in the men’s Team Sprint.
Blondin earned Canada’s first World Cup medal of the competition on Friday, pushing through a grueling 5000m to win bronze in front of family and friends at the Olympic Oval. Skating in the final pair of the afternoon, the Ottawa native posted consistent lap times to slowly chip away at the race leaders, moving into third with two laps remaining and crossing the line in 6:54.81.
Irene Schouten of the Netherlands (6:48.06) was victorious, while Ragne Wiklund of Norway (6:52.86) finished in second position. Fellow Canadian Valérie Maltais set a new personal best (7:00.59) to earn a sixth-place result, while teammate Isabelle Weidemann was seventh.
It was Blondin’s fifth career medal in the 5000m, having previously won two bronze, one silver and one gold. Her last medal in the distance was in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan, during the 2019-20 season.
Canada ended the first day of racing with another bronze medal, courtesy of Fiola (Montreal, Que.), Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.) and Gélinas-Beaulieu (Sherbrooke, Que.).
The Quebec-based trio crossed the line in 1:19.40, placing them in second position behind their pair mates from Poland (1:18.90). They were bumped into bronze medal position by the Netherlands (1:18.93) two pairs later, which they held on to until the end.
Friday’s bronze medal marked the fourth-career World Cup podium in the Team Sprint for the trio of Fiola, Dubreuil and Gélinas-Beaulieu, who previously won two bronze (Tomakomai 2018-19, Obihiro 2018-19) and one gold medal (Nagano 2016-17) together.
The ISU World Cup Speed Skating continues tomorrow at the Calgary Olympic Oval, where medals will be handed out in the women’s 1500m and Team Sprint, along with the men’s 500m and 10,000m. Tickets are still available at www.speedskating.ca.
Races will be live streamed on CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports. CBC will also have broadcast television coverage starting at 5:00pm ET.
Quotes
I feel like I haven’t pushed myself in the 5000m like that in a long time, so it was pretty satisfying. It was a great race for me, and I was really happy with how I skated. My objective going into the race was to go with her [teammate Isabelle Weidemann] and try to maintain consistent lap times at the beginning of the race to see where it gets me. I didn’t think that I would ever step on the 5000m podium again in my career because I’m working more on the middle distances, so I’m happy with it.
Ivanie Blondin
I hesitated a bit and didn’t take off as quickly as I could have during the start. We knew Antoine had just finished his 1500m and we wanted him to be able to stick with us. It was really close and we had to wait until the very end to be sure we had a place on the podium. It’s definitely an improvement from our last result in the Netherlands [7th in Heerenveen]. »
Christopher Fiola
Results
Men’s 1500m
- Connor Howe: 9th
- Tyson Langelaar: 15th
- Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 16th
- Jake Weidemann: 17th (Division B)
Women’s 500m
- Carolina Hiller: 14th
- Béatrice Lamarche: 15th (Division B)
- Rose Laliberte-Roy: 16th (Division B)
- Brooklyn McDougall: 7th (Division B)
Women’s 5000m
- Ivanie Blondin: 3rd
- Valerie Maltais: 6th
- Isabelle Weidemann: 7th
- Laura Hall: 5th (Division B)
Men’s Team Sprint
- Canada: 3rd