Denny Morrison makes it a speed skating golden double
Laurent Dubreuil finishes 2nd in 500 metre race, standings
Make way for Denny Morrison. Shortly after watching his Canadian teammate Laurent Dubreuil skate to a 500 metre speed skating silver medal, Morrison powered his way to victory in the 1,500 metre race, his second gold of the final World Cup meet in Erfurt, Germany.
Morrison, 29, who earned gold in Saturday's 1,000 metre event, produced a time of 1:46.15 in the fourth pairing to take over the lead from Bart Swings Belgium. That time stood up against all comers with the biggest scare coming from Norway's Sverre Lund Pedersen in the final pair. But Pedersen wound up second, .36 seconds behind Morrison.
Morrison's victory allowed him to pass Pedersen for the World Cup 1,500 metre title, edging the Norwegian by four points.
Laurent Dubreuil of Levis, Que. tied for second Sunday in a 500 metre race at the final World Cup speed skating competition of the 2014-15 season. It was Dubreuil's fifth career medal result in World Cup events.
Dubreuil, 22, capped his breakout season with his fifth World Cup medal in the 500, finishing behind Russia's Ruslan Murashov who skated the distance in 34.97. Dubreuil's time of 35.10 was matched in the final pairing by Dutch speedster Michel Mulder. Both skaters were timed in 35.102 and were awarded a tie for the runner-up spot.
Dubreuil placed third last month at the World Single Distances Championships in Heerenveen, Netherlands in the two-race 500 metre event, behind Mulder and the champion, Russia's Pavel Kulizknikov. The latter had already wrapped up the 500 and 1,000 metre World Cup titles.
Dubreuil wound up second for the season in the 500 metre standings with two runner-up finishes and three bronze medal results. Prior to this season, Dubreuil's career best in a World Cup event was 23rd.
Ottawa's Ivanie Blondin was eighth today in the women's mass start race, but that was good enough for her to win the event title. Blondin started with a 10-point advantage over Irene Schouten of the Netherlands in the mass start standings but Schouten wound up 12th in Sunday's event.