Canada's Bloemen, Muller go 1-2 in men's 5000m at ISU Speed Skating Four Continents Championships
CBC Sports | Posted: December 16, 2021 1:00 AM | Last Updated: December 16, 2021
Laura Hall wins silver in women's 3000m, bronze in team pursuit
Canada's Ted-Jan Bloemen and Kaleb Muller captured the top two spots on the podium in the men's 5000-metre race at the ISU Speed Skating Four Continents Championships on Wednesday in Calgary.
Competing in his hometown, Bloemen cruised to a gold medal with a time of six minutes 12.38 seconds, keeping quite the distance from his competition.
Muller, of Cranford, Alta., crossed the line with a personal best stopping the clock at 6:23.03.
"I'm pretty pumped about my performance today," the 23-year-old said. "Getting second place is really awesome and walking away with a personal best just capped off the day in a great way."
WATCH | Bloemen breezes through to 5000m gold medal:
Kazakhstan's Bakdaulet Sagatov took bronze with a time of 6:31.77.
Bloemen won silver for Canada in the 5000m event, while taking gold in the 10,000m event at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. The 35-year-old is also the Olympic record holder in the latter event.
WATCH | Kaleb Muller hits personal best in silver medal-winning effort:
Laura Hall, of Salmon Arm, B.C., won Canada's first medal of the day taking silver in the women's 3000m event.
The 18-year-old skated to a time of 4:20.68 finishing behind American Jamie Jurak who coasted through in 4:15.46.
South Korea's Chaewon Park narrowly fell to third with a time of 4:20.73.
Hall followed that performance up with a second medal winning bronze in the women's team sprint, finishing the race in 1:46.266 alongside teammates Carolina Hiller, of Prince George, B.C., and Kali Christ, of Regina, Sask. The trio finished behind South Korea (1:32.120) and the United States (1:30.469).
WATCH | Laura Hall grabs silver in women's 3000m race: