Maltais first and Blondin second in women’s mass start; Dubreuil vice-champion in 500m
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC – Valérie Maltais, Ivanie Blondin and Laurent Dubreuil capped off a successful ISU World Cup Speed Skating in Quebec City by reaching the overall World Cup podium in their respective distances at the Centre de glaces Intact Assurance on Sunday.
Maltais (La Baie, Que.) and Blondin (Ottawa, Ont.) finished the final women’s mass start race of the World Cup season ninth and twelfth, respectively. The Canadians, along with their Dutch rivals Irene Schouten and Marijke Groenewoud, were stuck in a chase group nearly 300m behind the leaders, sacrificing medals and choosing instead to fight it out for the overall podium.
Once the 16 skaters crossed the finish line, officials confirmed that Maltais’ 263 points were enough to place her atop the World Cup rankings, narrowly ahead of teammate Blondin (257). Schouten finished the season ranked third overall with 248 points, edging out American Mia Manganello (248) thanks to more medals over the course of the six events.
It marked Maltais first overall podium of her career in an individual distance, while Blondin now has ten World Cup overall podiums to her name in the mass start alone, including three gold. It was also the first time in history that Canada had two skaters on the overall World Cup podium in the mass start.
Maltais also earned a season-best fourth place finish in the women’s 1500m on Sunday, her time of 1:57.13 only 0.24 seconds behind bronze medalist Melissa Wijfje of the Netherlands.
Earlier in the day, Laurent Dubreuil (Lévis, Que.) faced off against American phenom Jordan Stolz in the final pair of the second men’s 500m race of the weekend, bit failed to reach the podium, settling for a fifth-place result with a time of 34.81.
His pair mate Stolz captured gold with a track record time of 34.36, narrowly breaking the previous mark of 34.37 set in the fall of 2022 by Dubreuil. It was Stolz’s fourth individual distance gold medal of the competition, having also earned a victory in the first 500m, as well as the 1000m and 1500m.
While the 31-year-old Dubreuil didn’t win a medal on Sunday, he didn’t go home empty handed, bringing home the title of vice World Cup champion in the 500m. The hometown favourite finished the campaign with 466 points, behind only Wataru Morishige of Japan, who was crowned champion with 483 points.
It was Dubreuil’s seventh career overall podium in the 500m, having finished first twice, second three times and third once.
The international speed skating season continues in two weeks with the ISU World Speed Skating Championships, which will take place in Calgary from February 15-18. Tickets are available for this historic competition, which is being hosted at the Olympic Oval for the first time since 1998.
Results
500m
- Laurent Dubreuil: 5th
- Yankun Zhao: 1st (Division B)
- Cédrick Brunet: 10th (Division B)
- Anders Johnson: 11th (Division B)
- Joshua Telizyn: 17th (Division B)
- Carolina Hiller: 12th
- Heather Carruthers: 19th
- Rose Laliberte-Roy: 5th (Division B)
- Béatrice Lamarche: 12th (Division B)
- Maddison Pearman: DNF (Division B)
1500m
- Valérie Maltais: 4th
- Ivanie Blondin: 8th
- Abigail McCluskey: 11th
- Alexa Scott: 1st (Division B)
- Alison Desmarais: 2nd (Division B)
Mass Start
- Valérie Maltais: 9th
- Ivanie Blondin: 12th