Ted-Jan Bloemen starts Olympic speed skating season with new Canadian record
Speed skater lowers his previous long track mark by 3 seconds
Ted-Jan Bloemen broke his own Canadian men's 5,000 metre long track speed skating record on Friday during the Fall Classic in Calgary.
Bloemen clocked a time of six minutes and 8.06 seconds, which is three seconds faster than the previous mark he's held since September 2016.
The 31-year-old skater, who is from Calgary, won the event by over 11 seconds.
Kim Min-Seok of South Korea finished second in 6:19.79 while Dmitry Babenko of Kazakhstan was third (6:20.73).
"It went super smooth today, said Bloemen. The time of six minutes and eight seconds is what I had in mind of what I could do because I felt I've made some progress.
"But I didn't dare believe it because it's so much faster than I've ever done! I couldn't have hoped for a better start, but don't want to get too excited and just keep building on this. I'm getting ready for a really good season."
With files from CBC Sports