Canadian women strike team pursuit gold at Four Continents speed skating championships
Ottawa's Ivanie Blondin wins gold medals in team pursuit, mass start events
Canada's Ivanie Blondin, Isabelle Weidemann and Valérie Maltais started the final day of the Four Continents speed skating championships with a bang on Sunday at the Utah Olympic Oval near Salt Lake City.
The trio won the women's team pursuit in an event-record time of two minutes 54.02 seconds — 3.52 seconds ahead of second-place Japan, and 10.30 seconds ahead of bronze-medallists United States.
Paired with South Korea in the second race of the four-team event, Canada lapped its opponent on the last turn just before crossing the finish line on the sixth and final lap, with the South Koreans finishing their last lap 16.76 seconds later.
While Japan set the Four Continents record time mere minutes before Canada staked its claim in the short four-year history of the competition, the pace the Canadians skated at was just 0.58 seconds off their time of 2:53.44 that won Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022.
Blondin and Weidemann, both of Ottawa, and Maltais of La Baie, Que., have dominated the event for years, winning eight straight World Cup races in the 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons, only to have their streak snapped by Japan at the first World Cup event of this season in Japan in November.
All three women had already secured individual medals earlier in the three-day event.
Blondin took home her second gold of the day on Sunday by winning the women's mass start in a time of 8:42.56, collecting 66 sprint points.
American Giorgia Birkeland was second with a time of 8:44.65 and 43 sprint points, and Kyoko Nitta of Japan claimed bronze with an 8:47.19 time and 26 sprint points.
Blondin kicked into high gear on the 16th and final lap, slowing down near the finish line yet still securing her fastest lap time of the race at 27.4 seconds to earn 60 sprint points.
Canada's Laura Hall was seventh with a time of 8:54.30.
Gélinas-Beaulieu leads Canadian men on final day
The Canadian men's pursuit team — comprised of Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu of Sherbrooke, Que., Connor Howe of Canmore, Alta., and Toronto's Hayden Mayeur — followed up the Canadian women's performance by finishing just 0.04 seconds back of the American gold-medal winning time of 3:36.80.
Japan took bronze with a time of 3:42.08.
"We went into today's race with no real expectations," Mayeur said in a release. "The boys and I haven't skated together as a team since our 2023 world championships medal so it was an opportunity to shake off the rust and see what we could do.
"We were extremely happy with the outcome. To be only four hundredths of a second off the Americans who have been on the podium at World Cups on several occasions this year, I think we're on the right track.
"We still have plenty of room to improve and I'm excited to see what's to come through the remainder of this season leading into the 2024 world championships in Calgary. Being back on the international stage and podium is always special, but after today, I think the fire is lit to chase down that gold we missed out on by a tenth of a second last year at world champs."
Gélinas-Beaulieu then capped a 12-medal haul for Canada with a bronze in the men's mass start, finishing with a time of 8:16.46 and 20 sprint points.
South Korea's Chung Jae-won won gold with a time of 8:16.33 and 60 sprint points, while Japan's Shomu Sasaki was second with an 8:16.43 time and 40 sprint points.
Daniel Hall of Canada was seventh with a time of 8:29.84 and six sprint points.
"I knew it was going to be a big race weekend with four races on the schedule," Gélinas-Beaulieu said. "Our first team sprint performance was exceptional. I had to adjust afterwards by cutting the 1,500m and that was the right decision for the rest of the weekend.
The Canadian team will remain in Utah for the fifth stop on the World Cup circuit, which runs Friday through Sunday, before making its way to Quebec City for the last World Cup stop ahead of the world championships in Calgary Feb. 15-18.
Live coverage of all events will be available on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Other Canadian results
- Laurent Dubreuil closed a strong weekend that saw him take home two gold medals with a fifth-place result in the men's 1,000m, finishing just 0.84 seconds back of a podium finish with a time of 1:07.86. Yankun Zhao and Vincent De Haître also added top-10 finishes for Canada in the event, placing seventh and eighth, respectively.
- Maddison Pearman led all Canadian competitors with a 10th-place finish in the women's 1,000m. Alexa Scott placed 12th while Alison Desmarais finished 14th.
WATCH | Day 3 of the Four Continents speed skating championships:
With files from Speed Skating Canada
