Denny Morrison wins 2 medals at speed skating worlds

Canadian Denny Morrison won a silver medal in the 1,500 metres on Day 2 of the world single distance speed skating championships Friday in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

Morrison's second-place finish in the 1500m gave him the ninth individual medal of his career at the World Single Distance Championships.

Russian Denis Yuskov earned gold, while Koen Verweij of the Netherlands took home bronze.

Defending champion Denis Yuskov of Russia took more than a second off the track record to win the men's 1,500 in one minute, 43.36 seconds.

Morrison, of Fort St. John, B.C., was second, 1.72 seconds behind Yuskov, and Koen Verweij of the Netherlands was third.

“The race went as planned,” said Morrison. “I started attacking in the second lap, and then I just trusted the plan and what my coaches told me, in that I was in good enough shape to hang on until the end. And I did, I hung on quite well in the last lap.”

Morrison is coming of a successful Sochi Olympics in 2014, winning silver and bronze in the 1,500m and 1,000m events, respectively. 

Pair of silver medals for Morrison

The 29-year-old then won another silver medal with the men's squad in the team pursuit event. With teammates Ted-Jan Bloemen, of Calgary, and Jordan Belchos, from Markham, Ont., the Canadian group clocked their best time of the event this season at 3:44.09.

“This is the result of work done over months, it didn't happen overnight,” pointed out Morrison.

“With (Bloemen) coming over this summer, it was a new team, and we struggled early on this season. So we had to communicate, find out what our flaws were, correct our flaws, and we had better results... And today, it all came together. This is just the beginning for us, on the road to the 2018 Olympics.”

The Dutch team won gold, for a third straight year with a time of 3:41.40.

Canada has now won a total of 70 medals, including 21 gold, 21 silver and 28 bronze, since the first edition of the World Single Distance Championships in 1996.