Hometown favourite Dubreuil wins 500m silver; Howe brings home 1500m bronze for first individual distance medal of the season

QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC – A sold out crowd at the Centre de glaces Intact Assurance in Quebec City were treated to two medals from Canada on the second day of ISU World Cup Speed Skating action, including silver in the 500m from hometown favourite Laurent Dubreuil.

Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.) used the energy of the fans to put down a great time of 34.59, only 0.08 seconds behind gold medalist Jordan Stolz of the United States (34.51). The pair were joined on the podium by Japan’s Yuma Murakami (34.67).

Dubreuil will have his sights set on gold, and the overall Works Cup title, during tomorrow’s second 500m of the weekend. He currently sits 19 points behind Wataru Morishie of Japan for the top spot.

Canmore’s Connor Howe also reached the podium on Saturday, bringing home bronze in the men’s 1500m. The 23-year-old crossed the finish line with a time of 1:45.73, placing him behind China’s Zhongyan Ning (1:44.79) and American Stolz, who set a new track record of 1:44.01.

Howe’s first individual distance medal of the season comes only one week after a fourth-place finish in the same distance at the World Cup in Salt Lake City.

The ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Quebec City concludes tomorrow, with the men’s 500m and Team Sprint, as well as the women’s 500m, 1500m and Mass Start. The races will be live streamed on CBC Sport and Radio-Canada Sports, with television coverage also available on CBC and ICI Télé.

Quotes

“It’s going to be great memories for the rest of my life, having skated in a World Cup at home and winning a silver medal, behind one of the best skaters of all time in Jordan Stolz. Of course, I would have loved to win gold, but in the end, I had a good race and I skated with passion. Finishing second behind Jordan is nothing to be sad about. I’ll have another chance tomorrow and I’m going to try to go for gold!”

Laurent Dubreuil

“It’s a really good feeling to be back skating well, like I was last year. I was missing it a bit at the start of the season, so I’m happy with the confidence boost that it gives me in the lead up to World Championships. It’s always nice to feel the love from a Canadian crowd and the fans here in Quebec were amazing. One of the best crowds of the season, in my opinion.”

Connor Howe

Results

500m

Laurent Dubreuil: 2nd
Yankun Zhao: 6th (Division B)
Cedrick Brunet: 8th (Division B)
Anders Johnson: 10th (Division B)
Joshua Telizyn: 15th (Division B)
Carolina Hiller: 11th
Heather Carruthers: 2nd (Division B)
Maddison Pearman: 10th (Division B)
Rose Laliberte-Roy: 11th (Division B)
Béatrice Lamarche: 19th (Division B)

1500m

Connor Howe: 3rd
Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu : 10th
Vincent De Haître: 17th
Max Halyk: 20th (Division B)
Ryan Kulbacki: 28th (Division B)

Mass Start

Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 13th
Jake Weidemann: 1st (Division B)