Bloemen, Belchos smash national speed skating record

Calgary's Ted-Jan Bloemen and Toronto's Jordan Belchos both broke the senior Canadian record in the men's 10,000-metre distance on Friday, the second day of Speed Skating Canada's Long Track Fall World Cup Selections.

Bloemen and Belchos respectively skated to times of 12 minutes 52.68 seconds and 13:06.07, improving on the old mark of 13:07.32 held by Belchos since last year. Hamish Black of Lucknow, Ont., finished third with a time of 13:44.70.

Bloemen, who is now the new record holder in this distance, picked up his second win of the competition after finishing first in Thursday's 5,000 metres.

"This was quite a breakthrough for me," said Bloemen. "I wanted to do a really solid and consistent race today, and that's exactly what I did. I wasn't actually thinking about my final time during the race. I was just thinking about keeping it together and keeping my position."

Winnipeg's Heather McLean won the first of two 500-metre races with a time of 37:77, coming only 55 hundredths of a second away from the national record.

Marsha Hudey of White City, Sask., took second place in 38.12. Edmonton's Jessica Gregg, an Olympic medallist in short track who switched to long track last year, followed in third place with a time of 38.59.

On the men's side, Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que., beat out William Dutton (34.677) of Humboldt, Sask., by only five thousandths of second, to win the first men's 500 of the weekend in 34.672. Alexandre St-Jean, from Quebec City, was third (34.73).

In the women's 5000, Ivanie Blondin of Ottawa won in a time of 7:07.73. Isabelle Weidemann, also from Ottawa, finished second while Josie Spence of Kamloops, B.C., was third