Canada wins bronze in women's team pursuit in World Cup speedskating

Although no individual speedskating medals were handed out to the Canadians on Sunday at the first World Cup meet of the season, the team still managed to earn some hardware.

Christine Nesbitt of London, Ont., Ivanie Blondon of Ottawa, and Winnipeg's Brittany Schussler secured a bronze medal for Canada in the women's team pursuit in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

The trio's time of three minutes, 2.337 seconds was just 0.006 seconds behind the second-place finishers from the Netherlands. Germany won gold in the event in 3:01.14.

It was Nesbitt's second medal of the meet, following her golden performance in the women's 1,500-metres on Saturday. Canada's Denny Morrison also placed first in the men's 1,000.

In other results, American speedskater Heather Richardson won the women's 1,000 — Nesbitt finished 10th with 1:16.85 — and Joji Kato of Japan captured the men's 500 race. Calgary’s Gilmore Junio finished just shy of his first career World Cup medal in the 500, but earned a career-best fourth-place finish in the event.

Richardson finished in 1 minute, 15.27 seconds to beat Hong Zhang of China and Lotte van Beek of the Netherlands.

Kato clocked 34.98 seconds to top the overall standings in the event after two races following his fifth-place finish on Saturday. He was followed on Sunday by Dutch skater Jan Smeekens and Mo Tae-Bum of South Korea.

Maurice Vriend of the Netherlands won the men's 1,500 race in 1 minute, 46.13 seconds. Norwegian pair Havard Bokko and Sverre Lunde Pedersen were next.