Maltais earns first career World Cup medal in the Mass Start; Blondin brings home overall World Cup title
TOMASZÓW MAZOWIECKI, POLAND – It was a historic double podium for Canada in the women’s Mass Start on Sunday, as teammates Valérie Maltais and Ivanie Blondin won silver and bronze, respectively, to finish off the World Cup season in Poland. It marked the first time in World Cup history that Canada had two skaters on the podium in the distance.
Maltais and Japan’s Momoka Horikawa broke away from the pack with eight laps remaining, and the duo swapped the lead five times before Horikawa crossed the finish line in first place to win her first career gold medal, narrowly defeating Maltais (8:58.56), who just could not catch her in the final sprint.
Fellow Canadian Blondin (9:03.51) finished the race roughly five seconds back in third, edging out Italy’s Laura Peveri (9:03.61) by only one-tenth of a second to grab the final podium position.
Maltais, 32, earned her first career individual distance World Cup medal with Sunday’s silver. It was also her second career international Mass Start podium, having captured gold on home ice at the 2023 ISU Four Continents Championships in Quebec City last December.
The bronze medal helped Ottawa’s Blondin secure the World Cup title, her 435 points narrowly edging out Dutch skater Marijke Groenewoud (424), who did not participate in the event this weekend, atop the leaderboard. Maltais finished sixth with 341 points.
Despite not reaching the podium on Sunday, Laurent Dubreuil was awarded with his third World Cup trophy of the season. The native of Lévis finished second in the overall World Cup rankings of the 1000m with 231 points, the same ranking he earned as part of the Team Sprint on Friday. The 30-year-old was also the top skater on 500m this season, winning the overall title by 30 points on Saturday.
The Canadian long track team finish the World Cup season with an impressive 30 medals, including 8 gold, 14 silver and 8 bronze across six events.
Laurent Dubreuil and Ivanie Blondin were crowned World Cup champions in the 500m and Mass Start, respectively. Meanwhile, Dubreuil (1000m), Isabelle Weidemann (3000m/5000m) and Connor Howe (1500m) each finished second overall in their distance rankings. Additionally, the women’s Team Pursuit finished first overall, while both the men’s and women’s Team Sprint were second.
The international long track speed skating season’s final competition – the ISU World Speed Skating Championships – is set to take place in Heerenveen, Netherlands, from March 2-5, 2023. The races will be live streamed on CBC Sports and Radio-Canada Sports platforms.
Quotes
“I am very happy with this podium today in the Mass Start! My goal since the start of the season was to make a podium in this distance. I was close a few times, but never close enough. Today, I wanted to find the moment to break away and I’m happy that it worked out. Momoka, who followed me when I attacked, and I worked together once we pulled away from the rest of the pack.”
Valérie Maltais
“Really happy with the Mass Start race today. With Valérie breaking away it made the girls from countries react, so I mostly just sat in the pack from that point and waited for my time to make an inside pass and grab the third spot on the podium. I knew I just had to finish top-5 to get the overall title. It was a well executed tactic.”
Ivanie Blondin
Results
Women’s 1000m
- Ivanie Blondin: 13th
- Maddison Pearman: 14th
Women’s Mass Start
- Valerie Maltais: 2nd
- Ivanie Blondin: 3rd
Men’s 1000m
- Laurent Dubreuil: 10th
- Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 14th
- Connor Howe: 19th
- Vincent De Haître: 8th (B Division)