Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu narrowly misses podium with fourth place in men’s 1000m
TOMASZÓW MAZOWIECKI, POLAND – Ottawa’s Ivanie Blondin continued her winning ways in the Mass Start on Sunday by reaching her fourth World Cup podium of the season in the distance, bringing home a silver medal to earn Canada’s third medal of the weekend.
The 32-year-old completed the very slow-moving Mass Start final in 9:34.470, a time that placed her behind only Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands (9:34.23). American Mia Kilburg (9:34.61) rounded out the podium in bronze medal position. Blondin was well positioned for the final sprint after exiting the last turn glued to the inside track, but she was unable to catch Groenewoud in the straight, allowing the Dutch skater to win her first gold medal of the season.
Blondin enters the final World Cup of the season ranked second overall in the Mass Start with 355 points thanks to four medals – one gold, two silver and one bronze. Groenewoud (424) appears to have the World Cup title locked up, however Kilburg (340) and Italy’s Laura Peveri (336) are within striking distance of Blondin, who will need to skate well to remain in second.
On the men’s side, Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu was just six hundredths of a second away from winning his second career World Cup medal in the 1000m. The Sherbrooke native completed the distance in 1:09.91 but fell short of knocking Poland’s Damian Zurek (1:09.85) out of bronze medal position. Dutch skaters Hein Otterspeer (1:09.24) and Kjeld Nuis (+0.28) won gold and silver, respectively,
The ISU World Cup Speed Skating season concludes next weekend with a second straight competition in Poland. The Canadian team has already won an impressive 26 World Cup medals (7 gold, 12 silver, 7 bronze) across five events.
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“Today went really well. I’m happy with the result and how I fought to the finish. We didn’t let any breakaways get away from us, which was good. It was another big weekend for me, especially after a big training camp on Grand Canary Island with lots of climbing on the bike. So I was definitely feeling it in the legs this weekend! But this hard training block is an investment for World Championships, where I’m hoping to feel more fresh and focus in on the races where I can hopefully podium and win a gold medal!”
Ivanie Blondin
Results
Women’s 1000m
- Ivanie Blondin: 11th
- Maddison Pearman: 3rd (Division B)
Men’s 1000m
- Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 4th
- Laurent Dubreuil: 10th
- Connor Howe: 14th
- Vincent De Haître: 20th
Women’s Mass Start
- Ivanie Blondin: 2nd
- Valérie Maltais: 11th
Men’s Mass Start
- Connor Howe: 14th