Ivanie Blondin, Graeme Fish win more titles at Canadian speed skating championships
Laura Hall, Connor Howe also pick up wins in Quebec City
Ivanie Blondin and Graeme Fish captured more hardware at the Canadian long-track speedskating championships on Friday in Qiebec City.
Blondin, who won the 3,000-metre crown on Thursday, claimed her second national title of the season with a win in the women's 1,000.
The 34-year-old from Ottawa won in a time of 1:15.562, ahead of Maddison Pearman of Ponoka, Alta. (1:17.182) and Rose Laliberte-Roy of St-Etienne, Que. (1:18.119).
"I was really happy with the end result. I had a great pair and Carolina [Hiller] really pushed me," Blondin said. "I was a little worried that we were going to have a crossover problem because she's more of a sprinter than I am. I was very aware of that possibility, so I decided to go as hard as I could off the start and that's really what got me going.
"I was able to maintain that into the second lap thanks to my long-distance experience."
Fish, Thursday's 5,000 champion, cruised to victory in the men's 10,000 on Friday.
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The reigning world championship bronze medallist of Moose Jaw, Sask., skated a time of 12:58.414. Calgary's Daniel Hall (13:48.799) and Connor Waters of Oakville, Ont. (14:13.529) took silver and bronze.
"It's always nice to go out there and have a good showing," Fish said. "My goals today were to execute my race plan and implement what I've been working on in training, and I think I was able to do that. I'm hoping to build off that and keep getting better every day."
Connor Howe of Canmore, Alta., captured the men's 1,000 in 1:08.933 to defeat hometown favourite Laurent Dubreuil (1:09.298). Anders Johnson of Burnaby, B.C. (1:09.513) took bronze.
Laura Hall of Salmon Arm, B.C., claimed the first national championship title of her career in the women's 5,000 (7:19.645). Abigail McCluskey of Penticton, B.C. (7:20.160) and Laurie Cayer of Levis, Que. (7:24.188) rounded out the podium.