Ivanie Blondin, David La Rue and Hayden Mayeur reach Mass Start podium; Laurent Dubreuil and men’s Team Pursuit capture bronze
HACHINOHE CITY, JAPAN – Canada captured five medals – one gold, one silver and three bronze – during the final day of racing at the ISU Four Continents Speed Skating Championships in Hachinohe City. The team concludes their weekend with 12 medals (three gold, three silver, six bronze), their second largest haul in the competition’s history.
Ivanie Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.) continued her impressive start to the season by bringing home gold in the women’s Mass Start. The reigning World Championship silver medalist was the quickest in the final sprint, finishing the 16-lap race in 9:23.28, ahead of Mia Manganello of the United States (9:23.36) and Ji-Woo Park of Korea (9:23.39). It was the 34-year-old’s third individual distance medal of the weekend, having also captured bronze in both the 1500m and 3000m.
Fellow Canadian Valérie Maltais (La Baie, Que.), who was the top Mass Start skater during last season’s World Cup circuit, was in contention throughout Sunday’s race but ran out of steam during the final sprint, settling for a fourth-place finish (9:24.10).
Meanwhile, Canada earned a double podium in the men’s Mass Start, as David La Rue (Saint-Lambert, Que.) captured silver and Hayden Mayeur (Toronto, Ont.) won bronze. The Canadian duo worked together to chase down New Zealand’s Kierryn Hughes, who broke away from the peloton five laps into the race. La Rue (8:22.13) was in the lead going into the final lap, but a slight slip exiting the final corner allowed Kazakhstan’s Vitaliy Chshigolev (8:22.05) to gain ground and outstretch him at the finish line to steal the gold medal.
David La Rue“I am really happy to have reached the podium with Hayden today. It’s kind of funny because we were talking strategy before the race and told ourselves that we would stay behind to conserve our energy, but in the end that’s not at all what happened. There was an attack early in the race and the peloton didn’t react at all. I started accelerating on the outside and looked at Hayden, and we decided to go. We worked together until the end of the race so that the rest of the peloton couldn’t catch up. The Kazakh skater managed to close the gap. He didn’t really contribute to the breakaway pack’s effort, but it’s understandable considering the circumstances that there were two Canadians at the front. All in all, I’m super happy to have ended this first weekend in Asia with a medal. I’m excited to build upon this, both in the Mass Start and in my individual distances.”
Mayeur also contributed to Canada’s bronze medal in the men’s Team Pursuit earlier in the day, alongside teammates Connor Howe (Canmore, Alta.) and Ted-Jan Bloemen (Calgary, Alta.). The new skater lineup crossed the finish line in 3:47.43, placing them behind Japan (3:44.47) and the United-States (3:43.13).
Hayden Mayeur“We weren’t as quick as he had hoped to be, but this is a new Team Pursuit group. Ted-Jan is back in the mix for these Four Continents and the upcoming World Cups, so we were just finding our bearings as a team skating together. All things considered; we really were not that far off from being competitive for the top spot. We were able to extract a lot of information from this first race together so that we improve and contest for a medal at the upcoming World Cup in Nagano.”
On the women’s side, defending Olympic champions Blondin, Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann got off to a quick start in their Team Pursuit race, but Weidemann unfortunately lost an edge and slipped into the safety mats during the second lap, putting an end to Canada’s medal chances.
Laurent Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.) earned his second individual distance medal of the weekend, taking bronze in the men’s 1000m. The 32-year-old sprinter posted a time of 1:09.52, finishing one second behind triple gold medalist Jordan Stolz of the United States (1:08.04). Japan’s Tatsuya Shinhama (+0.34) earned the silver medal, while Dubreuil’s teammate Howe finished just off the podium in fourth place (1:09.52).
The Canadian long track speed skating team will be back in action next weekend at the first of six ISU World Cup Speed Skating stops this season. CBC Sports will live stream all the races from Nagano, Japan, on their digital channels.
Results
1000m
- Maddison Pearman: 15th
- Laurent Dubreuil: 3rd
- Connor Howe: 4th
- Anders Johnson: 7th
Mass Start
- Ivanie Blondin: 1st
- Valérie Maltais: 4th
- David La Rue: 2nd
- Hayden Mayeur: 3rd
Team Pursuit
- Men’s: 3rd
- Women’s: DNF